Gift of Mrs. Lewis B. Williams · The Cleveland Museum of Art
Image: public domain (CC0) · Museum record & image source ↗
France, 19th century · 1890
Young Saint John
- Date
- 1890
- Medium
- pastel on pale blue laid paper
- Dimensions
- 57.1 x 38.1 cm (22 1/2 x 15 in.)
- Country / context
- France
- Movement / tradition
- Impressionism · Source ↗
- Collection
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Pathway
- European and American art ↗
FROM THE MUSEUM
In the spring of 1890 Berthe Morisot and her husband, Eugène Manet, rented a house with a garden overlooking the Seine River in the rural French town of Mézy. Morisot worked in the attic studio while the pair was there. A young boy from the village served as the model for this pastel, one of several studies for a full-length painting of Saint John the Baptist with his cross. In this drawing, Morisot developed the loose and sketchy marks that would characterize her final canvas.
Collection text · The Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0A MOMENT TO LOOK
Start with what you can see: shapes, surface, colour and scale. How might the listed materials affect the way this object was made and experienced?
Looking prompt · an invitation to observe, not a historical interpretation.
