Women Impressionists and the Land

Exhibition at the The Saint Louis Art Museum, 17 October 2026 - 10 January 2027

This exhibition catalogue offers the first serious investigation of the landscape production of the women Impressionists. Rather than concentrating on the domestic subject matter of these artists, which has been widely discussed, it explores the less documented outdoor spaces that were painted by the key women in the group, particularly Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Marie Bracquemond and Blanche Hoschedé-Monet as well as by lesser-known artists.

The book explores the way in which landscape imagery contributed to the rise in status of women artists in France during the years 1860–1910. It examines a range of works, focusing especially on the work of Morisot, who trained as a landscape painter and saw landscape imagery as a central part of her practice. The book examines favoured iconographical themes, such as the painting of marine and agricultural scenes, and parks and gardens. Central is imagery of a domesticated nature, such as Morisot’s paintings of the Bois de Boulogne, Bracquemond’s pictures at Sèvres and Cassatt’s views at the Château de Beaufresne after 1894.