Art Inspires

Stephen and I visited the Legion of Honor Museum yesterday. We were there for the exhibit;

Women Impressionists:
Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Eva Gonzalès, Marie Bracquemond

What a glorious collection of work. These women were contemporaries of Manet, Monet, Degas, Pissaro and Renoir.

Here is a description I wrote down during the visit at the museum.

“All four women were acquainted with their Impressionist colleagues and gained acceptance into the group. However, once achieving the status of professional artists, they still had to negotiate the conventional notions of proper behavior for women of their class. They were not allowed to be seen in public without a chaperone or to enter the cafe-concerts or bars that their male counterparts relied heavily upon for their colorful stock characters. Thus, whereas their male peers explored a wide range of subjects drawn from everyday life, social convention largely confined these women artists to their domestic environment, and their subjects reflected their perception of the world from within this limited sphere.”

Looking at these amazing masterpieces, what struck me was how in spite of the obvious talent represented, the struggle for equality has been a long hard battle for women for a very long time and I often loose track of that fact as I live out being female in the 20th /21st century. Living within the confines of their culture these women still made such a huge difference and can be an inspiration today to women and girls everywhere. What a blessing!

Here is a wonderful quote:

“I shall obtain independence only by persevering and by making not a secret of my intention of emancipating myself.”
Berthe Morisot
1841 – 1895

Her painting La psyché (The Mirror) is pictured above.

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area don’t miss this exhibit. It closes September 21.
http://www.women-impressionists.org/