Towards the end of his life, Bert Morisot tries to combine his two main predilections: painting and love for his daughter. Mother and daughter often walk around the lake in the Bois de Boulogne near Paris and try to remember various phenomena and states of nature, centenary trees or majestic swans.
The two heroines of “Hortense” are cousins Julie Jeanne and Paul Gobillar, whose attention is focused on their own beauty. The brunette looks straight ahead, as if she is sitting in front of a mirror. A light pink muslin dress with a blue tint opens to a deep neckline. Bertha Morisot here depicts the personal space of both sisters, as well as the moment of their joint pastime. Gobillar girls dress up among flowers. The flower motif is often repeated in the work of Bertha Morisot, mainly as a symbol of female attractiveness. The girls pictured here are actually flowers. Perhaps it was this picture that suggested the name “In the Shadow of Blooming Girls” to Marcel Proust.
A colorful diagonal passes from a large blue hydrangea in the upper left, heading for a red flower, lying on the lap of one of the girls, a little behind. Between these two points you can notice the blue rose, the transparency of the dresses and the light skin of both sisters.
(2 votes, average: 2.50 out of 5)