Janelle Montgomery: Morisot was a respected member of a cohort of painters we know as “the Impressionists,” and yet her work is very rarely studied, or even exhibited even today. How did you go about choosing the works for this show and organizing them into the exhibition, and what does it tell us not only about Morisot, but also about the Impressionists?
Dr. Nicole Myers: It’s really surprising that Morisot was one of the founding members of the French impressionist group — she was the only woman to join this rebel band of artists in 1874 — and she was really well known and celebrated and praised in her time and yet in the 20th century her role has been diminished — sometimes eliminated —in the telling of the story of French Impressionism. So, the goal of our project of course is really to re-establish her reputation, and and give visitors a chance to see her work because so many are in private collection.