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Your galleryOn the Balcony
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Compare the woman’s dark dress with the child’s pale clothing, then look through the railings toward the lightly sketched city.
This small work is watercolor with touches of gouache over graphite, rather than an oil painting. Morisot gives the nearby figures more weight than the distant buildings, using the light paper as part of the view. The railing marks a boundary between the shared balcony and the city beyond.
Watercolor, with touches of gouache, over graphite, on off-white wove paper · 20.6 × 17.3 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Impressionism
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Details and source
- Museum title
- On the Balcony
- Artist
- Berthe Morisot French, 1841-1895
- Date
- 1871/72
- Medium
- Watercolor, with touches of gouache, over graphite, on off-white wove paper
- Dimensions
- 20.6 × 17.3 cm (8 1/8 × 6 13/16 in.)
- Credit line
- Gift of Mrs. Charles Netcher in memory of Charles Netcher II
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.







