Sewing by Berthe Morisot

In the summer of 1881, Eugene and Bert Mans lived in Bougival. This village near Versailles, once a former imperceptible village, by the time being described had turned into a fashionable “summer cottage town” with many lovely villas where wealthy Parisian families spent their summers.

They moved to the dachas at that time, as usual, thoroughly, “from children and households”. Together with the spouses Mane, naturally, there was Julie, who was two years old in 1881, and her nanny. It was the nurse who was captured by the artist on the garden bench for sewing.

A completely ordinary scene acquired under Bertha Morisot’s brush ease, festivity, “extra-ordinary” charm. This was what Stefan Mallarme had in mind when he spoke of Morizo’s “extravaganza” talent: “This extravaganza was everyday and projected onto everyday objects. And this rare and brilliant alchemy was turned to the simplest of family feelings, to the most ordinary objects of the everyday life of the XIX century “.