A woman dressed in a deep blue gown sits in the foreground of a lush garden, her figure positioned slightly to the left of center. The background is filled with a lattice fence and abundant greenery, painted in quick, visible strokes that merge with the figures and flowers. Morisot uses acid greens and bluish ochers throughout the scene, blending the colors of the garden with those of the figures to create a unified impression of light and air.

The brushwork is loose and energetic, with slashing strokes that describe both the dappled sunlight and the textures of fabric, leaves, and petals. Morisot’s approach in this painting follows the Impressionist style, as she does not sharply distinguish the brushstrokes used for the figure from those for the garden setting. The effect is a seamless transcription of sunlight and atmosphere, achieved without clear boundaries between subject and environment. After its creation, the painting remained with Morisot until her death in 1895, then passed by descent to her daughter Julie and her husband Ernest Rouart, and later to their son, Denis Rouart. It was sold to Nathan Cummings in 1955, then given to Mrs.

Robert B. Mayer in the 1970s, and later acquired by Consolidated Foods Corporation in 1983 before entering the Art Institute of Chicago in 1999 as a gift of the Sara Lee Corporation. Woman in a Garden was exhibited in several notable shows, including a possible appearance in the Impressionist exhibition at Dowdeswell Galleries in London in 1883, and in multiple Paris exhibitions dedicated to Morisot’s work throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.