Berthe Morisot: 226 Colour Plates

By Maria Peitcheva

Berthe Morisot was French artist, member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists. She was described by Gustave Geffroy as one of "les trois grandes dames" of Impressionism alongside Marie Bracquemond and Mary Cassatt. She formed a close friendship with Manet, who became her brother-in-law, and she served as model for several of his paintings. The two greatly influenced each other's artistic development. Her own later work inclined toward pure Impressionism in its rendering of light, while retaining an unusual smoothness of brushwork. Morisot painted what she experienced on a daily basis. Her paintings reflect the 19th-century cultural restrictions of her class and gender. She avoided urban and street scenes as well as the nude figure and, like her fellow female Impressionist Mary Cassatt, focused on domestic life and portraits in which she could use family and personal friends as models. Her works also include drawings, pastels and watercolors.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Maria Peitcheva
• Release date: Mar 16, 2016
• ISBN: 9788892571778

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Paintings

Foreword

Berthe Morisot was French painter and printmaker, member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists. She was described by Gustave Geffroy in 1894 as one of les trois grandes dames of Impressionism alongside Marie Bracquemond and Mary Cassatt. Morisot painted what she experienced on a daily basis. Her paintings reflect the 19th-century cultural restrictions of her class and gender. She avoided urban and street scenes as well as the nude figure and, like her fellow female Impressionist Mary Cassatt, focused on domestic life and portraits in which she could use family and personal friends as models. Her works also include landscapes, portraits, garden settings and boating scenes.

As the child of upper middle-class parents, she was expected to be a skilled amateur artist and was thus given appropriate schooling. In 1857 she attended drawing lessons with Geoffroy-Alphonse Chocarne (active 1838-1857), but in 1858 she and her sister Edma left to study under Joseph-Benoit Guichard, a pupil of Ingres and Delacroix. In the same year they registered as copyists in the Louvre, copying Veronese and Rubens. The sisters were introduced to Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot in 1861 and took advice from him and subsequently from his pupil, Achille-Francois Oudinot (1820-1891). Through these artists they became familiar with current debates on naturalism and began to work en plein air, painting at Pontoise, Normandy and Brittany.

She formed a close friendship with Manet, who became her brother-in-law, and she served as model for several