Berthe Morisot's 'Jour d'été' at National Gallery London: A Summer Scene

The National Gallery in London houses Berthe Morisot's painting 'Jour d'été', created around 1879. The artwork depicts two women in a boat on a lake in the Bois de Boulogne, a park along the Seine in Paris that was transformed into an artificial woodland by Napoleon III and landscape architect Adolphe Alphand in the 1850s. The painting was likely exhibited as 'The Lake in the Bois de Boulogne' at the fifth Impressionist exhibition in April 1880, alongside another similar work by Morisot, 'In the Bois de Boulogne'. Morisot's close-up perspective suggests she was in the boat with the women, who were probably professional models. The scene captures a typical bourgeois leisure activity, but Morisot's zigzag brushstrokes create light effects that add three-dimensionality to the women's dresses, the water, and the background vegetation. This technique drew criticism from fellow artist Edgar Degas, who described her paintings as 'vaporeuse' (misty) and seemingly unfinished, while other critics praised the resulting grace and delicacy. The painting is part of the National Gallery's collection and is featured in an article on ArtsLife titled 'Estate nell’arte' (Summer in Art), which also highlights works by Paul Gauguin, Edvard Munch, and Vincent van Gogh.