Jeune fille à l'ombrelle

The present work depicts Jeanne Fourmanoir in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. A professional model for fellow Impressionist painters Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Federico Zandomeneghi, Jeanne was introduced to Berthe Morisot by Zandomeneghi in 1892. This thoughtful painting was executed the subsequent year, with Morisot working beside her daughter Julie Manet, who would later own this work. Morisot's preliminary watercolor for the present oil has resided in the British Museum in London for nearly a century, where it is housed beside Julie Manet's watercolor of the same subject.

(fig. 1) Berthe Morisot, Jeune fille au bois, circa 1893. The British Museum, London.