Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot was born in Bourges, France in 1841, into a family of wealth and culture. When she was 11 years old, her family moved to Paris. Berthe and her sister Edma, like most other wealthy young girls, received private art lessons from Joseph Guichard, a French painter.

It was during this time; she met Edouard Manet and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot while studying and copying paintings at the Louvre. Morisot and Manet began a lifelong friendship and, he was the most important single influence on the development of her painting style. Through their common bond, she met his brother Eugene, and they were eventually married.

Morisot exhibited in her first Salon de Paris in 1864 and would continue to do so until 1873. The Salon adhered to the traditional, which was why many of the artists like Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, and Camille Pissarro were not invited.

Morisot would join the group now known as the Impressionists at a time when her painting was becoming more experimental. From the beginning, Morisot took part in the innovations of this group and participated in their first exhibition in 1874. Her daughter, Julie Manet, modeled for Renoir and appeared in many of his famous paintings and etchings.

The characteristics of Morisot’s work show a very delicate touch and a great intimacy of the atmosphere. Her technique based on subtle touches of paint applied freely in every direction, giving her work a sheer, iridescent quality. The critics praised her brushwork and considered her palette of delicate pinks, whites and, grays to be very feminine and charming.

In addition to oil, Morisot worked in pastel and watercolor and produced several works on paper using the drypoint technique. The subject matter of these works consisted mainly of scenes containing women and children and the occasional landscape.

Berthe Morisot contracted pneumonia and died in Paris in 1895, at age 54. Today, she is considered, along with Mary Cassatt, to be one of the two most important women painters of the 19th century. A retrospective exhibition titled “Berthe Morisot: Woman Impressionist” was in Quebec, Canada and, the United States in 2018 and 2019 and is currently on view at Musée d’Orsay until September 22, 2019.