“The Cradle”, a Motherhood Dedicated to BERTHE MORISOT – Dipak Ranjan Sen

Dipak Ranjan Sen, 1968 Architecture & Planning

In the 19^th century, hundreds of thousands – perhaps millions – of women were good painters. But almost none of them became professional artists or produced work that was anything more than charming and accomplished. Only a tiny minority middle class girls continued to paint in their adult life and aspired to anything resembling a professional career.

Of these, BERTHE MORISOT was not only the greatest but also the most daring artist, since she made a common cause with a group of painters whose work provoked unprecedented outrage and abuse. Morisot was a striking figure, slender and always dressed in black and white. She used to concentrate on domestic and feminine subjects, and in 1871, she produced what has become her most celebrated painting, “The Cradle”, first canvas in which she exhibits the restrained, un-sensuous sweetness of one of the artist’s sisters, Edma, watching over her sleeping daughter, Blanche. The mother’s gaze, her bent left arm, a mirror image of the child’s arm, and the baby’s closed eyes form a diagonal line which is further accentuated by the movement of the curtain in the background. This diagonal links the mother to her child. Edma’s gesture, drawing the net curtain of the cradle between the spectator and the baby, further reinforces the feeling of intimacy and protective love expressed in the painting. This painting distinguished her work from that of the other impressionists.  In 1930 it was acquired by the Louvre Museum, Paris. Her few other sketches are also some slender mothers, whose affectionate tenderness can be seen in her paintings.

Inspired by her artworks, I dedicate two of my paintings for this great artist, BERTHE MORISOT

Morisot uses in this painting a reduced number of colors and a fluid brushstroke. The painting reflects an atmosphere of great intimacy, sweetness and protective love. This canvas, together with others like the one Claude Monet made of his son, Jean Monet at his Cradle (1867), brings in a new representation of childhood.

Acknowledgement – Impressionist, by Douglas Mannering, of Paragon Publishers, Bristol; & Artsandculture.com;

Here I present another painting of mine, dedicated to this great artist.