Mademoiselle Louise Riesener in a Hat

Mademoiselle Louise Riesener in a Hat from the late 1870s is a pastel portrait that demonstrates Morisot's mastery of a medium that was particularly associated with women artists in the 19th century. The pale blue laid paper provides a base tone that animates the entire composition, and the pastel medium allows Morisot to capture the sitter's face and fashionable hat with a rapidity and luminosity that oil painting cannot match. Mademoiselle Riesener—the granddaughter of the cabinetmaker Jean-Henri Riesener—is depicted with the direct gaze and informal pose that distinguish Morisot's portraiture from the more conventional approaches of her male Impressionist colleagues.

Pastel was a medium especially favored by women Impressionists because it allowed rapid execution and luminous color without the elaborate studio setup that oil painting required. Morisot's pastel portraits demonstrate her mastery of the medium: the pale blue paper animates the entire composition, and the pastel strokes capture the sitter's features with a directness and immediacy that her oil paintings sometimes sacrifice to atmospheric effect.

Mademoiselle Louise Riesener in a Hat is Morisot's pastel portraiture at its most luminous: the pale blue paper providing a base tone that animates the entire composition, the pastel strokes capturing the sitter's face and fashionable hat with a rapidity that oil painting cannot match. Pastel was the medium that women Impressionists made their own, and Morisot made it sing.