Woman and Child on a Balcony

Berthe Morisot

Oil on canvas

Art Institute of Chicago

Woman and Child on a Balcony (French: Femme et enfant au balcon) depicts a well-dressed woman and a young girl seen from behind, standing on a balcony overlooking the Parisian cityscape of the 16th arrondissement, with landmarks including the Jardins du Trocadéro, the River Seine, and the dome of Les Invalides visible on the horizon. Painted in oil on canvas in 1872, the work exemplifies Morisot's Impressionist approach: loose, flickering brushwork captures the atmosphere and light of a hazy afternoon rather than precise architectural detail, inviting the viewer into a fleeting, intimate moment of everyday bourgeois life. Berthe Morisot (1841–1895) was a founding member of the Impressionist circle in Paris, the only woman to exhibit in the group's landmark first exhibition of 1874, and was widely regarded by her contemporaries as one of the movement's most authoritative voices. Her paintings characteristically drew on the domestic and social world available to women of her class, transforming seemingly modest subjects into sensitive, formally inventive compositions.