Morisot, Berthe (b. Jan. 14, 1841, Bourges, Fr.--d. March 2, 1895, Paris)
French painter and printmaker. The first woman to join the circle of the French impressionist painters, she exhibited in all but one of their shows, and, despite the protests of friends and family, continued to participate in their struggle for recognition.
Born into a family of wealth and culture, Morisot received the conventional lessons in drawing and painting. She went firmly against convention, however, in choosing to take these pursuits seriously and make them her life's work. Having studied for a time under Camille Corot, she later began her long friendship with Edouard Manet, who became her brother-in-law in 1874 and was the most important single influence on the development of her style. Unlike most of the other impressionists, who were then intensely engaged in optical experiments with color, Morisot and Manet agreed on a more conservative approach, confining their use of color to a naturalistic framework. Morisot, however, did encourage Manet to adopt the impressionists' high-keyed palette and to abandon the use of black. Her own carefully composed, brightly hued canvases are often studies of women, either out-of-doors or in domestic settings. Morisot and American artist Mary Cassatt are generally considered the most important women painters of the later 19th century.
Le berceau (The Cradle)
1872
Oil on canvas 56 x 46 cm
Musee d'Orsay, Paris
Cache-cache (Hide-and-Seek)
1873
Oil on canvas 45 x 55 cm
Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, Las Vegas
La hotte (The Basket-Chair)
1885
Oil on canvas 24 1/8 x 29 3/4 in.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
La lecture (Reading) (The Mother and Sister of the Artist)
1869-1870
Oil on canvas 101 x 81.8 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Marine (The Harbor at Lorient)
1869
Oil on canvas 43.5 x 73 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Peasant Hanging out the Washing
1881
Oil on canvas (46 x 67 cm)
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen
Portrait de Mademoiselle M.T. (Young Girl with a Parrot)
c. 1873
Pastel on paper 60 x 49.5 cm
Private collection, New York
Un village (Le village de Maurecourt)
Pastel on paper 47 x 72 cm
Private collection, New York
Study: At the Water's Edge
1864
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Schoneman
The Artist's Sister at a Window
1869
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Also referred as "Young Woman Seated at a Window" or "Portrait of Edma Pontillon", the subject is Berthe Morisot's sister Edma.
On the Balcony
1871-72
private collection
Butterfly Hunt
1874
med
Muse'e d'Orsay, Paris
The models are Edma and her children.
In a Park
1874
Petit Palais, Paris
Edma and her children.
Eugene Manet on the Isle of Wight
1875
Private Collection
Eugene Manet, the artist's husband.
Figure of a Woman (Before the Theater)
1875-76
Galerie Schro"der und Leisewitz, Kunsthandel, Bremen, Germany
The Psyche
1876
Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Lugano, Switzerland
Portrait of Marcel Gobillard (Little Boy in Gray)
1880
private collection in Geneva
Little Girl with a Doll
1884
private collection
The Bath (Girl Arranging Her Hair)
1885-86
Sterling and Francine Church Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA
Little Girl Reading
1888
Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA
Julie Manet et son Le'vrier Laerte
1893
Muse'e Marmottan, Paris
Julie Reveuse
1894
Private collection