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Madrid Tickets Thyssen Bornemisza Museum Berthe Morisot
Impressionist painting on display at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Berthe Morisot at the Thyssen-Bornemisza

Two paintings by the first woman Impressionist hang in the museum: The Psyche Mirror of 1876, shown at the 1877 Impressionist exhibition, and a reclining shepherdess painted at Mézy in 1891.

Visit

Both paintings are covered by the Permanent Collection entry: Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum tickets

Location

The Psyche Mirror: Room 33, Level 1. Reclining Nude Shepherdess: Room D, Level 0. Paseo del Prado, 8, 28014 Madrid

Visit duration

The museum's own estimate for a full visit is about two and a half hours. Plan your visit

Key fact

The Psyche Mirror: 1876, oil on canvas, 65 x 54 cm

Berthe Morisot (1841–1895) studied with Corot, was a muse to Édouard Manet and became a core member of the Impressionist group alongside Monet, Renoir, Degas and Pissarro. The Thyssen-Bornemisza owns two of her paintings, both on display. One hangs with the Impressionists upstairs, the other in the Carmen Thyssen rooms. Together they show her fifteen years apart, at a dressing mirror and by the water at Mézy.

Berthe Morisot in the museum: key facts

Morisot lived from 1841 to 1895 and trained as a student of Corot.

The Psyche Mirror was shown at the third Impressionist exhibition in 1877, in an apartment rented by Gustave Caillebotte.

Émile Zola singled out its greys and whites for praise.

Its earliest known owners were the Rouen collectors Eugène and Auguste Dutuit, who held it before a sale in 1880.

The Empire-style mirror in the picture belonged to Morisot herself.

Reclining Nude Shepherdess was painted in 1891, while she rented a house at Mézy-sur-Seine with her husband, Eugène Manet, and their daughter, Julie.

In 2011 the museum gave her her first solo show in Spain, organised with the Musée Marmottan Monet.

The Psyche Mirror, Room 33

Old master paintings in a gallery of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

A young woman dresses slowly in her bedroom in front of a tall swivelling mirror, the kind the French call a psyché. She gathers the back of a loose blouse, perhaps imagining how a corset would look, her left shoulder bare. Light from two windows beside the mirror gives Morisot a whole range of whites to work with. When it was shown in 1877, Bertall and Ballu wrote about it favourably. The title carries a double meaning: the mirror, and Psyche, loved by Eros in the myth. The museum's essay links the subject to the old theme of Vanity, and to Manet's Nana and Degas's women at the mirror.

Reclining Nude Shepherdess, Room D

Villahermosa Palace, home of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

At Mézy in 1890 and 1891 the countryside gave Morisot new subjects. She made drawings, landscapes and even a study of a goat before settling on this composition, worked up in a traditional, academic way. The model was a local girl, Gabrièlle Dufous, painted nude but keeping her head covering. The modelling is firmer than in Morisot's work of the late 1870s, which the museum relates to her admiration for Renoir's nudes. The pose has no direct parallel in Renoir or Degas. The essay calls it her most ambitious nude, and the figure reads less as a shepherdess than as a nymph resting by water.

Morisot and the painters around her

A gallery room inside the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Corot

Morisot trained under Camille Corot. The outdoor setting of the Reclining Nude Shepherdess recalls his figure compositions of the 1860s, figures placed out in the landscape. The Carmen Thyssen Collection also includes landscapes by Corot himself, among them Solitude. Recollection of Vigen, Limousin, painted in 1866.

Terracotta-walled galleries at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Manet

Morisot was a muse to Édouard Manet, and her husband was Eugène Manet. The museum compares The Psyche Mirror with Manet's Nana, another woman caught at her toilette, and notes how often Morisot painted the inner lives of women. It quotes Paul Valéry, who wrote that she “experienced her painting”.

A landscape painting in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection

Renoir

Renoir visited Morisot at Mézy during her stays there in 1890 and 1891. The firmer modelling of the figure reflects her admiration for his nudes, and it is more controlled than her work of the late 1870s and early 1880s.

Villahermosa Palace, home of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

The Musée Marmottan Monet

Paris holds the largest collection of her work: the Marmottan has 25 oil paintings and 75 watercolours, which came to the museum through her descendants. It worked with the Thyssen on the 2011 to 2012 Morisot exhibition in Madrid, the first devoted to her in Spain.

4.8
(28)

Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum Tickets: Permanent Collection

Highlights

Explore an extraordinary assortment of artworks spanning multiple centuries.

Wander through thematic floors featuring pieces from medieval times to modern avant-garde.

Enjoy the chance to visit anytime within a year with flexible ticket validity.

Admire pieces from prominent artists, including unique works representing different art movements.

Benefit from free entry for visitors under 18 and complimentary admission on Mondays during midday hours.

4.7
(21)

Prado, Reina Sofia and Thyssen: Paseo del Arte Season Tickets

Highlights

Avoid lengthy queues with express access.

Visit three top museums located close to each other.

Save up to 20% compared to individual ticket purchases.

Experience some of the world’s finest art collections.

Flexible entry times and dates for your convenience.

Two Morisots, two floors

Start with The Psyche Mirror in Room 33 among the Impressionists, then go down to Room D on the ground floor for the shepherdess. Seeing both in one visit shows how far Morisot moved in fifteen years, from a quick, light-filled interior to a carefully built figure outdoors, posed by a girl from the village.

Berthe Morisot at the Thyssen: frequently asked questions

Does the Thyssen-Bornemisza have paintings by Berthe Morisot?

Yes, two: The Psyche Mirror (1876) in the permanent collection and Reclining Nude Shepherdess (1891) in the Carmen Thyssen Collection.

Where are the Berthe Morisot paintings in the museum?

The Psyche Mirror is in Room 33 on Level 1. Reclining Nude Shepherdess is in Room D on Level 0.

What does The Psyche Mirror show?

A young woman dressing in her bedroom in front of a tall swivelling mirror that belonged to Morisot, lit by two windows.

Why is the painting called The Psyche Mirror?

A psyché is a tall swivelling dressing mirror. The French title also refers to Psyche, the figure from mythology loved by Eros.

Who was the model for Reclining Nude Shepherdess?

A local girl from Mézy-sur-Seine named Gabrièlle Dufous, where Morisot spent 1890 and 1891 with her family.

Was there a Berthe Morisot exhibition at the Thyssen?

Yes. Berthe Morisot: The Woman Impressionist ran from 15 November 2011 to 12 February 2012, organised with the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris.

About this guide

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