The Port at Lorient
Berthe Morisot's sister Edma sitting on a harbour wall at Lorient, the Breton naval port spread out behind her.
Lorient
The painting depicts a real landscape or cityscape. The precise viewpoint the artist used may be unknown, so the marker shows the general area.
The Port at Lorient — at a glance
- Artist
- Berthe Morisot (1841–1895)
- Year
- 1869
- Movement
- Impressionism
- Place
- The port of Lorient, Brittany, France
- Viewpoint
- A quayside wall by the harbour — the old centre was destroyed in 1943 and rebuilt; the harbour setting remains
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- c. 43 × 73 cm
- Now at
- National Gallery of Art, Washington
Overview
The Harbour at Lorient is one of Berthe Morisot's first fully achieved paintings, made in 1869 while she visited her married sister Edma at Lorient. Edma, in a white dress and holding a parasol, sits sideways on a low stone parapet at the right, close to the viewer; the rest of the picture opens onto the sunlit harbour — quays, moored boats, pale houses, a church tower — under a wide sky, all reflected in the calm water. It is oil on canvas, about 43 by 73 cm, and it hangs in the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Morisot gave it to Édouard Manet, who admired it.
Where was The Port at Lorient painted?
Scholarship Lorient, on the south coast of Brittany at the mouth of the Scorff and Blavet rivers, was founded as a base for the French East India Company and became a naval port and arsenal. Edma had moved there on her marriage to a naval officer. Lorient's old centre was almost completely destroyed by Allied bombing in 1943, when it held a German U-boat base, and was rebuilt after the war, so the specific quayside Morisot painted is gone; the harbour, the roadstead and the general setting remain.
What is in the painting?
Edma sits at the right on the low wall, feet on a ledge, parasol resting on her shoulder, looking out over the water. The wall runs back along the quay; beyond, moored sailing boats, a long line of pale quayside buildings and a church spire, and small figures. The harbour water is smooth and mirrors the town and the high, light sky.
Look closely
Edma on the wall
In a white dress with a parasol, sitting sideways on the low parapet at the right edge, looking out.
The mirrored harbour
Smooth water repeats the quayside buildings, the church spire and the light sky.
The empty sweep
Most of the canvas is quay, water and sky — the figure is almost an afterthought.
Analysis
Composition and technique
A single seated figure pushed to one edge, with most of the canvas given to the bright, reflecting harbour.
Scholarship Morisot sets Edma off to the right and lets the empty sweep of quay, water and sky carry the picture, so it reads almost as a landscape with a figure attached. The touch is light and rapid, the light high and clear — an early statement of her feathery Impressionist manner.
History & provenance
The painting passed from Manet's estate through French collections and is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Sources
- National Gallery of Art, Washington — collection entry for Berthe Morisot, ‘The Harbor at Lorient’ (1869; oil on canvas, c. 43 × 73 cm)
- Sylvie Patry (ed.), ‘Berthe Morisot: Woman Impressionist’ (2018)
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