Berthe Morisot (French, 1841–1895) was a painter and printmaker associated with the Impressionist movement and best known for her domestic scenes and
portraits of women. In 1858, she studied with
Joseph-Benoît Guichard (French, 1806-–1880), a student of
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (French, 1780–1867) and
Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798–1863), and began copying the works of the Masters in the Louvre. Morisot became acquainted with
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (French, 1796–1875), who introduced her to working
en plein air, a key technique of the Impressionist group, of which she was a central member. She was a close friend and advisor to
Édouard Manet (French, 1832–1883), and regularly interacted with artists and intellectuals such as
Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917),
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841–1919) and Stéphane Mallarmé.
She submitted many works to the Impressionist exhibitions of the 1870s and 1880s, including
The Cradle (1872), which was shown at the 1874 exhibition and was the first submission by a woman. The painting depicts one of Morisot’s sisters watching over her daughter, and it is the first of many images of
motherhood in Morisot’s body of work. Paintings such as
Woman and Child in the Garden at Bougival (1882) display the loose brushwork and focus on modern everyday life that have established Morisot as a quintessential Impressionist. Towards the end of her career, she turned to mythic subject matter and her brushwork became more linear, as seen in
Cherry Tree (1891). In addition to paintings, Morisot produced pastels, watercolors, lithographs, and drypoints. In an auction at the Hôtel Drouot in 1875, her work sold for slightly higher prices than fellow artists
Camille Pissarro (French, 1831–1903),
Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926) and
Alfred Sisley (French, 1839–1899), proving that she was a well-respected artist in her own time. Today, Morisot’s work is held in several museum collections, including the National Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.