Women of Impressionism: Overlooked Voices

While histories of Impressionism have traditionally focused on the male artists who gathered at the Café Guerbois, women played crucial roles in the movement's development. Berthe Morisot, who married Manet's brother Eugène in 1874, was not merely a talented amateur but a full participant whose work matched that of her male colleagues in innovation and quality. Her paintings of domestic life and gardens captured the same fleeting effects of light with a delicacy and psychological insight uniquely her own.

Marie Bracquemond, dubbed by critic Gustave Geffroy as one of "les trois grandes dames" of Impressionism alongside Morisot and Mary Cassatt, faced opposition from her husband, the engraver Félix Bracquemond, who disapproved of her Impressionist style. Despite these obstacles, she produced luminous paintings that demonstrated complete mastery of the new techniques.

Eva Gonzalès, a student of Manet, and American expatriate Mary Cassatt, who would join the group in the later 1870s, further enriched the movement. These women faced unique challenges—excluded from formal artistic education at the École des Beaux-Arts, unable to work from nude models, restricted in their movements through the city—yet they created art that was essential to Impressionism's vision of modern life.