Linda Nochlin, “Morisot’s Wet Nurse: The Construction of Work and Leisure in Impressionist Painting,” in Linda Nochlin, Women, Art and Power and Other Essays, 37–56 (New York: Harper and Row, 1988).

Total word count at least 350

1. Who is the woman in Morisot’s painting Wet Nurse and Julie (1879) and what relationship does she have to the artist? (2)

2. According to Nochlin, how are the themes of labor and work reflected in Morisot’s Wet Nurse and Julie? Furthermore, what is the tension between labor and leisure in the painting? How was women’s work represented differently than men’s work in the nineteenth century and how did gender influence what was determined to be labor versus leisure? (6)

3. What role do social class and gender play in Morisot’s ability to be an artist and in the woman in the painting Wet Nurse and Julie’s position as her model and employee? (3)

4. How can painting itself be understood as a form of work? In what sense can both Morisot’s painting Wet Nurse and Julie and its subject matter be understood as commodities within a capitalist market? (3)

5. How has gender influenced the reception of Morisot’s paintings? Discuss critical responses to both her subject matter and her skill as an artist. (2)