El espejo psiqué (The Psyche Mirror)

Berthe Morisot

Oil on canvas

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

Painted in 1876, El espejo psiqué (La Psyché) depicts a young woman in a state of partial undress, gathering the waist of her loose white blouse before an Empire-style full-length dressing mirror—known in French as a psyché—set between two light-filled windows. The composition, rendered in Morisot's characteristically loose, luminous brushwork, achieves a rich tonal symphony of whites and greys that drew admiring commentary from contemporaries including Émile Zola. Berthe Morisot (1841–1895) was one of the central figures of French Impressionism, closely allied with Manet, Renoir, and Degas in her pursuit of capturing the effects of light and the textures of modern everyday life. The title holds a deliberate double meaning: it refers both to the mythological figure of Psyche, beloved of Eros, and to the tilting cheval-glass depicted in the scene, inviting reflection on female interiority and self-awareness beyond mere vanity.