Baby Berthe in a High Chair with Toys

In this informal image, a blonde, curly-haired toddler sits in profile in her bentwood highchair at a table draped with a colorful tapestry and crowded with toys. Wearing a pale yellow gown draped with a white pinafore, the child is absorbed with a toy. A striped ball, a toy cow, and two dolls, a blue-clad one sprawled on its back, are among the playthings awaiting her attention. In the background, a cropped bit of a framed painting adorns the blue wall. On the right, the youngster is framed against a broad area of white, perhaps a drapery over a piece of furniture. Loosely painted, Baby Berthe in a Highchair with Toys is a casual glimpse of an everyday scene as quickly captured by the artist without the careful composition and preliminary drawing of traditional methods.

The subject of Baby Berthe in a Highchair with Toys is Berthe Helene MacMonnies, born September 19, 1895, the daughter of artists Frederick and Mary Fairchild MacMonnies. The painting evidently was made around the same time as Atelier at Giverny (TF 1999.91), in which Berthe, seated in the same highchair and facing left as here, peers out at the viewer across the space of her mother's painting studio; Baby Berthe in a Highchair with Toys appears in Atelier at Giverny as a sketchy painting on an easel. At the turn of the twentieth century Giverny, a rural village in Normandy, France, was the site of a popular international artists' colony that included numerous visiting Americans. Beginning in 1890, the MacMonnieses were prominent members of the community, in which impressionism, the direct, spontaneous painting of everyday subjects in bright, pure color, became the dominant aesthetic. This work's informality of both technique and subject, along with its bright colors, marks its creator's adherence to this modern mode.

The authorship of both Baby Berthe in a Highchair with Toys and Atelier at Giverny long has been in dispute. Frederick, primarily a sculptor, and Mary, a highly successful painter, each painted domestic subjects inspired by their small children, although only Frederick is known for sure to have pictured the studio as a setting. This work was once identified as C'est la fête à bébé (or Baby's Birthday), a painting Mary exhibited in 1899 at the Art Institute of Chicago, but according to a reviewer that was a large and "elaborate" painting, likely not this intimately scaled canvas.¹  As painters, Mary and Frederick worked in close proximity, no doubt engaging in an exchange of artistic ideas and methods that resulted in similarities in style as well as subject. Whether by husband or wife, this intimate work celebrates the couple's professional success and affluence in its portrayal of their cherubic daughter and her abundance of possessions.

1.   Cole, Helen "A Western Art Collection" Brush and Pencil 4:4 (July 1899): 198–202

9th Annual Exposition Nationale de Beaux Arts, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France, 1899, no. 977.

A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 21–June 21, 1987. [exh. cat.]

Frederick William MacMonnies et Mary Fairchild MacMonnies: deux artistes Américains à Giverny, Musée Alphonse-Georges Poulain, Vernon, France, June 18–September 11, 1988 (as Baby Berthe in High Chair with Toys, by Frederick William MacMonnies). [exh. cat.]

Collection Cameo, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, February 1989.

American Painters in France, 1830–1930, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, June 14–September 3, 1989 (as Baby Berthe in High Chair with Toy). [exh. cat.]

Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915 (Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, June 1–November 1, 1992; April 1–October 31, 1993; April 1–October 30, 1994; April 1-October 31, 1995. [exh. cat.]

Domestic Bliss: Family Life in America, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 12–June 22, 1997.

American Artists and the Paris Experience, 1880–1910, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, November 22, 1997–March 8, 1998.

Giverny: une impression américaine (Giverny, An American Impression), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–November 1, 1998.

An Interlude in Giverny: The French Chevalier by Frederick MacMonnies, Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania (organizer). Venue: Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, October 24, 2000–June 24, 2001. [exh. cat.]

Mary et Frederick MacMonnies, un atelier à Giverny (Mary and Frederick MacMonnies, a Studio in Giverny), Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain, Giverny, France, April 1–July 1, 2001 (modified form of An Interlude in Giverny: The French Chevalier by Frederick MacMonnies at the Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, October 24, 2000–June 24, 2001). [exh. cat.]

Artistic Communities: Mary MacMonnies Low and Frederick MacMonnies in Chicago and Giverny, Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, July 12–October 7, 2001 (modified form of An Interlude in Giverny: The French Chevalier by Frederick MacMonnies at the Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, October 24, 2000–June 24, 2001 and Mary et Frederick MacMonnies, un atelier à Giverny [Mary and Frederick MacMonnies, a Studio in Giverny] at the Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–July 1, 2001). [exh. cat.]

(Re)Presenting Women, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, October 16, 2001–January 13, 2002.

Visages de l'Amérique: de George Washington à Marilyn Monroe (Faces of America: From George Washington to Marilyn Monroe), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 2004. [exh. cat.]

Twarze Ameryki: Portrety z kolekcji Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940 (Faces of America: Portraits from the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France and Miedzynarodowe Centrum Kultury (International Cultural Center), Crakow, Poland (organizers). Venue: International Cultural Center, Crakow, Poland, February 15–May 7, 2006. [exh. cat.]

Atkinson, D. Scott et al. A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art. Edited by Terry A. Neff. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1987. Pl. T-139 (color as Baby Berthe in High Chair with Toys, 1897? by Frederick MacMonnies).

Gordon, E. Adina. Frederick William MacMonnies et Mary Fairchild MacMonnies: deux artistes Américains à Giverny. (exh. cat., Musée Alphonse-Georges Poulain, Vernon, France). Vernon, France: Musée Alphonse-Georges Poulain with le Concours du Conseil Général de l'Eure, 1988. Text p. 98; ill. no. 12b, p. 98 (black & white).

Baby Berthe in High Chair with Toys, Frederick William MacMonnies. Collection Cameo sheet, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, February 1989. Ill. (black & white as Baby Berthe in High Chair with Toys by Frederick William MacMonnies).

Gerdts, William H. et al. Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text pp. 64, 182; pl. 32, p. 185 (color).

Gerdts, William H. et al. Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text pp. 64, 182; pl. 32, p. 185 (color).

Southgate, M. Therese. "The Cover." The Journal of the American Medical Association Pakistan 4:7 (September 1992): 390. Text p. 390; ill. cover (color).

Gomes, Rosalie. Impressions of Giverny: A Painter's Paradise 1883–1914. San Francisco, California: Pomegranate Artbooks, 1995. Text pp. 85, 115; pl. 54, p. 86 (color).

Smart, Mary. A Flight with Fame: The Life and Art of Frederick MacMonnies, with a Catalogue Raisonné and a Checklist of Paintings by E. Adina Gordon. Madison, Connecticut: Sound View Press, 1996. Text no. 9, p. 319 (as Baby Berthe in a High Chair, c. 1897 by Frederick MacMonnies).

Cartwright, Derrick R., Joyce Henri Robinson, and Mary S. Smart. Un atelier à Giverny. Mary et Frederick MacMonnies. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2001. Text pp. 28, 33, 36, 63, 110; fig. 12, p. 29 (color).

Robinson, Joyce Henri, Derrick R. Cartwright and E. Adina Gordon. An Interlude in Giverny. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2001. Text pp. 46, 49, 52; fig. 11, p. 47 (color).

Ringelberg, Kirstin. "No Room of One's Own: Mary Fairchilds MacMonnies Low, Berthe Morisot and 'The Awakening.'" In Prospects: An Annual of American Cultural Studies. Vol. 28. Edited by Jack Salzman. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Text p. 128; fig. 2, p. 130 (black & white).

Lévy, Sophie, et al. Twarze Ameryki: Portrety z kolekcji Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940/Faces of America: Portraits from the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940. (exh. cat. International Cultural Center). Cracow, Poland: International Cultural Center, 2006. Ill. p. 102 (color).

Ringelberg, Kirstin. Redefining Gender in American Impressionist Studio Paintings: Work Place/Domestic Space. Surrey, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2010. Text pp. 1, 3–4, 12, 18, 73, 78 as C'est la fête à bébé, by Mary Fairchild MacMonnies Low; ill. pl. 3 (color).

Southgate, M. Therese. The Art of JAMA III: Covers and Essays from the Journal of the American Medical Association. Chicago, Illinois: American Medical Association, 2011. Text pp. 72, 204; ill. opposite p. 72 (color as "C'est la fête à bébé by Mary Fairchild MacMonnies Low).