Summer's Day

Berthe Morisot’s Jour d’Ete (Summer’s Day) 1879 depicts two fashionably dressed young women seated in a rowing boat on an ornamental lake with a view of trees and parkland behind them. A speeding horse and carriage can be deciphered in the distance. The setting is the northern end of the Lac Inférieur, the larger lake in the Bois de Boulogne, a parkland acquired by the city of Paris in 1852 and developed in to a major pleasure ground for its citizens with artificial lakes, a zoo and a botanical garden. The women are similarly attired in straw hats decorated with ribbon, tight fitting bustled garments and each carries an umbrella. The figure on the right wears black lace fingerless gloves and a more elaborate hat and a high-necked grey silk dress. Her companion is wearing a dark blue jacket over a grey blouse and skirt. Figures dressed in the same costumes appear in Morisot’s Jeunes Femmes Cueillant des Fleurs, or In the Bois de Boulogne, (National Museum, Stockholm). It is likely that both works originate with the same visit to the park.