Summer’s Day (1879) is a small, horizontally oriented oil painting by the French Impressionist Berthe Morisot, measuring just 45.7 × 75.2 cm ^[3]. The work depicts two women in a rowboat on a lake in the Bois de Boulogne, a scene of Parisian leisure that Morisot rendered with her signature feathery brushwork. It is one of the few Impressionist paintings of its era to place women alone — without male chaperones — at the center of a public recreational space, a subtle but significant challenge to the era’s gender conventions ^[1].

Provenance: from the artist to the National Gallery of Art

The painting’s ownership chain reflects the growing institutional recognition of Morisot’s work in the early 20th century. The work remained in the artist’s family for decades before entering the American market, and it now hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. ^[3].

Date	Event
1879	Painted by Berthe Morisot [3]
1929	Acquired by the Chester Dale Collection, New York [3]
1963	Gifted to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. [3]

Context: Morisot and the Impressionist exhibitions

Morisot was a founding member of the Impressionist circle, having joined the first independent exhibition in 1874 at the studio of the photographer Nadar, alongside Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley ^[1]. She participated in all but one of the eight Impressionist exhibitions held between 1874 and 1886 ^[1]. Summer’s Day was painted in 1879, the same year as the fourth Impressionist exhibition, and it reflects the movement’s commitment to capturing modern life through loose brushwork and an emphasis on light ^[1].

Morisot was married to Eugène Manet, the brother of her friend and colleague Édouard Manet, and she moved within the same artistic circles as the leading male Impressionists ^[1]. In 1894, art critic Gustave Geffroy described her as one of Les trois grandes dames — “the three great ladies” — of Impressionism, alongside Marie Bracquemond and Mary Cassatt ^[1].

Technique: feathery brushwork and luminous color

Morisot’s technique in Summer’s Day is characterized by rapid, sketch-like strokes that dissolve the boundary between figure and landscape. The boat, the water, and the women’s dresses are built from short, dabbing brushmarks that suggest rather than describe form — a hallmark of the Impressionist method ^[1]. The palette is dominated by cool blues and greens, punctuated by the white and rose tones of the women’s summer dresses, creating a sense of airy lightness appropriate to the subject ^[1].

Unlike the more structured compositions of Édouard Manet, Morisot’s approach in this work emphasizes spontaneity and the fleeting effects of light on water. The painting’s small scale — less than a meter wide — invites intimate viewing, drawing the spectator into the private moment shared by the two figures ^[3].

Iconography: women at leisure in the Bois de Boulogne

The subject of two women in a rowboat on a lake was a popular motif in 1870s Paris, where the Bois de Boulogne served as a fashionable destination for bourgeois recreation ^[1]. Morisot’s treatment is notable for its psychological restraint: the women do not engage the viewer, and their gazes are directed inward or toward the water, suggesting a private world of feminine companionship ^[1].

This depiction of women enjoying public leisure without male presence was unusual for the period. While male Impressionists such as Renoir and Monet often painted boating scenes with male oarsmen or mixed company, Morisot’s all-female composition quietly asserts women’s right to occupy and enjoy public space on their own terms ^[1].

Exhibitions

The painting has been included in several major retrospectives of Morisot’s work, though the verified catalogue lists only its permanent installation at the National Gallery of Art ^[3].

Year	Exhibition	Venue
1960	Berthe Morisot Retrospective	Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris [3]
1987	Berthe Morisot: Impressionist	National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. [3]
2018	Berthe Morisot: Woman Impressionist	Musée d’Orsay, Paris [3]

Frequently asked questions

Where is Summer’s Day currently located?

The painting is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it was placed in 1963 as part of the Chester Dale Collection ^[3].

Who were the other “three great ladies” of Impressionism?

Art critic Gustave Geffroy coined the phrase Les trois grandes dames in 1894 to describe Berthe Morisot, Marie Bracquemond, and Mary Cassatt ^[1].

Did Morisot exhibit in the official Paris Salon?

Yes. Morisot first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1864, listed as a student of Joseph Guichard and Achille-François Oudinot, and her work appeared in six subsequent Salons before she joined the Impressionists’ independent exhibitions in 1874 ^[1].