Rest

Rest is a masterful print created by Berthe Morisot in 1889. Executed as a drypoint on laid paper, this work exemplifies the artist's sensitive draftsmanship in the realm of printmaking. The creation date places the piece firmly within the 1876 to 1900 period, a transitional era in French art that saw Impressionism mature and evolve toward modernist expression. Though primarily known for her oils and pastels, Morisot occasionally turned to graphic media, utilizing the drypoint technique to achieve a particular intimacy and immediacy.

Drypoint differs from traditional etching as it involves scratching directly into the copper plate with a sharp needle, creating a raised edge of metal called a burr. This burr holds the ink and yields the characteristic soft, blurred, and velvety lines visible in the resulting prints. Morisot exploits this effect here to define a figure in a private moment of repose, capturing a subject often found in her work: domestic life and the interior emotional world of women. The delicacy of the line work and the sparing use of shadow align perfectly with the goals of the Impressionist movement, prioritizing the capture of fleeting sensory experience over rigid academic structure.

Morisot was one of the few women consistently recognized among the leading French Impressionists of the late nineteenth century, and her graphic works, though fewer in number than her paintings, are highly valued for their delicate and spontaneous touch. Her foray into prints reflects the era’s growing interest in portable, reproducible images. This significant example of Morisot’s graphic output is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, providing invaluable insight into the varied technical skills of the Impressionist master. As a work often considered part of the public domain due to its age, high-quality images are widely accessible, enabling extensive scholarly study of the artist’s contribution to print history.