Unfortunately, I probably won’t be seeing this exhibit of works by Berthe Morisot because it doesn’t seem like it will be coming to a museum near me.

But I great up in the Tampa Bay area and the only museum with anything like a genuinely good collection was the St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts (no offense to the Tampa Museum of Art, which I hear has gotten better, but thirty years ago it was not a great collection).

And even that museum had more second tier paintings by first rate painters. A nice Cezanne. One of the Monet’s paintings from the Thames. A lot of very nice stuff that I would happily have on my walls, but the only truly first rate  paintings was Reading (La Lecture).

During my formative years and formative visits, the painting was not really played up – probably because, frankly, of systemic prejudice against women. But now that things have changed and society has evolved somewhat, I imagine they are quite proud of it. And it was always given a nice spot on the walls, where it was easy to see.