Young Woman with a Straw Hat

Berthe Morisot

National Gallery of Art

Shown from the waist up, the profile of a pale-skinned woman wearing an ice-blue dress is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes in this vertical portrait. The woman’s body faces our right, and she looks slightly down with her pale pink lips parted. A floppy straw hat is tied over her copper-blond hair with a plum-purple ribbon and tied in a bow beneath her chin. The bow appears to be nearly as wide as her shoulders, and the ribbons hang down almost to her belly button. Her dress has a high, ruffled neckline along the back of the neck and long sleeves. A few flecks of lapis blue suggest polka dots, and a blue belt wraps around the waist. The background is especially loosely painted with strokes of aqua blue and bright, bottle green that suggest an outdoor setting and few touches of coral red in the lower corners could be flowers.