Berthe Morisot
Four years after her debut, Berthe met the painter
Edouard Manet through fellow artist Henri FantinLatour. They formed a close friendship based on
mutual respect and admiration for each otherʼs
work. She encouraged Manet to take up open-air
painting and to employ a lighter palette. Though
she was never a pupil of Manetʼs, she adopted a
more modern approach to painting from him,
focusing on portraits over landscapes. Manet, in
turn, painted many portraits of her, notably “The
Balcony” and “Repose,” (in all, Morisot appeared
in eleven of Manetʼs works). The Manets and
Morisots were close and the families often took
vacations together.
Biography
Berthe Morisot was born in Bourges, France, the
youngest of three daughters in an upper middleclass family. In 1848, when Berthe was seven
years old, the family moved to Paris. Berthe and
her sister Edma (who was two years older) were
given art instruction at an early age and
demonstrated a dedication and seriousness that
were not expected from girls of their class. One of
their first teachers was Joseph Guichard who
quickly became aware of the sistersʼ skill. Their
training included copying some of the old masters
at the Louvre Museum. They also wished to paint
outdoors, which was customary at the time, but
because respectable women in the mid-19th
century did not go out alone and wander freely in
Paris, Guichard restricted them.
In 1861, the Morisot sisters met Camille Corot, a
landscape painter whose work they greatly
admired. Because Corot executed many of his oil
sketches outdoors, he is referred to as the first “en
plein air” or “in the open air” painter. He became
the sistersʼ mentor and invited them to watch him
paint. Since women were not allowed to join
official art schools until the last few years of the
century, this was a unique opportunity to further
their art education. Corot became a family friend
and, from 1862 to 1868, Bertheʼs paintings show
his influence in light and color. Eventually Berthe
debuted two landscape paintings at the
prestigious state-run Salon of 1864, and her work
was shown there regularly for the next decade.
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At the Salon of 1870 Morisot showed “The Artistʼs
Sister and Mother Reading” (which was heavily
retouched by Manet and attracted little attention),
and “Harbor of Lorient.” Manet praised the second
painting so enthusiastically that Morisot presented
it to him as a gift. [The Salon was the government
sponsored and sanctioned art exhibition held
annually in Paris. It had a firm grip on artists,
galleries and artistic reputations since without
exposure from the Salon, a painter could not be
considered a professional. All artwork submitted
had to conform to the rigid criteria of the Salon
jury or be rejected.]
Through Manet, Berthe met many of the members
of the Impressionist group. In 1874, against
Manetʼs advice and example, Morisot began to
exhibit with this group of independent artists. They
financed their own exhibition in opposition to the
Salon, called “Salon des Refuses” (Salon of the
Refused), to highlight the official Salonʼs
disapproval of their art. Their art sought to
capture a moment in time (mimicking the workings
of the new invention, the camera) by recording the
artistʼs personal impressions. The advent of
portable paint tubes allowed them to carry oil paint
out into the field and apply it in thicker, freer brush
strokes. They were also interested in the new
scientific research into light and color. Mostly they
wanted to break away from the Salonʼs demand
for an “important” subject—historical, mythical,
allegorical—that conveyed a story and was
destined for the homes of the upper classes and
government buildings. Instead they painted small
scale contemporary genre and landscape scenes
directly from nature with no “story” involved. The
1 Berthe Morisot
six core members of the Impressionist group were
Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste
Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Edgar Degas and Berthe
Morisot.
In December, 1874, at age 33, Morisot married
Edouard Manetʼs younger brother, Eugene, who
was also a painter. Eugene Manet supported his
wife in her work, and the marriage gave her social
and financial stability while she continued her
painting career. Berthe Morisot exhibited in all of
the Impressionist exhibitions except in 1877, when
she was pregnant with her daughter, Julie (born in
1878). Meanwhile her sister Edma had stopped
painting after her own marriage, though she often
posed as a model for her sister. Free of the
money worries that plagued Monet, Renoir,
Pissarro and Sisley, Morisot worked earnestly and
loyally as a member of the group. Unfortunately,
her contributions were less emphasized than her
role as a female supporter within the group. The
freshness and intimacy of her subjects engaged in
traditional feminine occupations and pastimes
earned her the label of “feminine artist.”
Like her friend, Mary Cassatt, her art glorified
domestic life, but unlike Cassattʼs careful linearity
and deliberately flattened figures and spaces,
Morisotʼs works were more spontaneous and
natural. She worked in oils, watercolors, and
pastels and produced numerous drawings. Her
compositions convey the tranquil moments where
figures are in repose, quietly reflecting upon their
own thoughts. She used vivid colors and
energetic, expressive brushwork to contrast a
contemplative figure with vivid surroundings. In
her later works of the 1880s, she devoted more
attention to drawing and was influenced by the
style, color and methods of Pierre-Auguste
Renoir. Rather than relying on spontaneous
observation as in her earlier work, Morisot copied
Renoir by making numerous sketches of her
subject before beginning a painting. Two paintings
that showcased her new style were “The Cherry
Tree” and “Girl with a Greyhound.”
Renoir or Sisley. Her first one-woman show was
held in 1892. Her husband, Eugene, died during
the preparation for this exhibit after a long illness.
Morisotʼs friends and fellow artists rallied around
her and her young daughter, and she continued to
work. After the solo show, she sold a number of
works and she earned further recognition in 1894
when the French government purchased her
painting “Young Woman in a Ball Gown.”
In the winter of 1894-95, at the age of 54, Morisot
contracted pneumonia and died on March 2, 1895.
After her death, Renoir and Degas organized a
retrospective of her work that garnered serious
critical acclaim and ensured her place as one of
the founding members of the revolutionary
Impressionist movement. Her career was
remarkable for a number of reasons. As a group,
the Impressionists were among the most maligned
painters of the 19th century. Under the
circumstances, it must have seemed unlikely that
a respectable, upper middle-class woman would
join them. Additionally, her social position and sex
made her choice of profession as an artist
unusual. Along with Mary Cassatt (who joined the
group later), she has the distinction of being one
of the first women to officially challenge the art
establishment and to achieve fame outside
officially approved circles. Yet, on her death
certificate, she is listed as having “no profession.”
She was buried in the Manet family tomb in
Passy, joining her husband Eugene and her close
professional colleague, Edouard Manet.
Bibliography
www.biography.com
Letʼs Meet Famous Women Artists, by Jacqueline
Badman and Lisa Lewis-Spicer, ©1996, Instructional
Fair, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The classical simplicity of Morisotʼs work caused
less public scandal than her fellow Impressionists
and although she was never commercially
successful during her lifetime, she did receive
consistently better auction prices than Monet,
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