The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 20, 2026

A vertically oriented pastel drawing on pale blue paper depicts a woman in profile facing our left. She wears a voluminous black hat and a dark ruffled collar with a white ruffled detail at her chest. Her fair skin has light pink tones, and her blue eyes look forward beneath blonde hair. Wispy light blue pastel strokes surround her head, while her lower body is lightly sketched. A small dark mark sits at the bottom.

Mademoiselle Louise Riesener in a Hat

c. 1877–80

Berthe Morisot

(French, 1841–1895)
France, 19th century
pastel on pale blue laid paper
Sheet: 55.5 x 46.8 cm (21 7/8 x 18 7/16 in.); Framed: 75.3 x 66.2 x 4.5 cm (29 5/8 x 26 1/16 x 1 3/4 in.)
Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna Jr. 1958.41
Catalogue raisonné: Bataille and Wildenstein 527
Location: 004 Special Exhibition Gallery

Did You Know?

Morisot favored the (formerly) blue paper used here for pastels and used it for numerous works.

Description

This portrait depicts Louise Riesener, daughter of artist Léon Riesener and close friend of Morisot. The artist depicted her subject in bust-length profile wearing a black jacket out of which peek the decorative ties of a white blouse. Morisot paid particular attention to the hat; a fashionable Parisian woman of the upper-middle class would have worn such an accessory whenever she went out in public. Morisot produced nearly 200 pastels during her career, the majority figure studies and portraits brought to varying degrees of finish.
  • ?-?
    Georges Lurcy [1891–1953], New York
    ?-1939
    (Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York, sold to Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Cleveland, OH)
    1939-1958
    Leonard C. Hanna Jr. [1889–1957], Cleveland, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    1958-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Bataille, M.-L. and G. Wildenstein. Berthe Morisot: Catalogue des peintures, pastels, et aquarelles. Paris: Beaux-Arts, 1961. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 56, no. 527; Reproduced: fig. 517
    Rey, Jean Dominique. Berthe Morisot. Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 1982. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 75
    Burnham, Helen. “Fashion and the Representation of Modernity: Studies in the Late Work of Édouard Manet (1832–1883).” PhD diss., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 2007. Mentioned: p. 180
    Salsbury, Britany. Nineteenth-Century French Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Lewes, UK, Cleveland, Ohio: GILES; Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 126-129, no. 21a
    Brown, Heather Lemonedes. "Manet & Morisot Pastels." In Manet & Morisot. Emily Beeny, Heather Lemonedes Brown, Anne Higonnet, Kimberly A. Jones, Nicole R. Myers, et al., 209-221. San Francisco, New Haven: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Yale University Press, 2025. Mentioned: p. 209, 217-221; Reproduced: p. 137, no. 55
  • Manet & Morisot. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (co-organizer) (March 29-July 5, 2026).
    Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 20-June 11, 2023).
    Pure Color: Pastels from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 19, 2016-March 19, 2017).
    Mary Cassatt and the Feminine Ideal in 19th-Century Paris. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 14, 2012-January 20, 2013).
    Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008).
    Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000).
    Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 7, 1993-January 2, 1994).
    Form in the Arts. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 15-November 10, 1959).
  • {{cite web|title=Mademoiselle Louise Riesener in a Hat|url=false|author=Berthe Morisot|year=c. 1877–80|access-date=20 May 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1958.41