Berthe Morisot

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Berthe MorisotBourges, France, 1841 - 1895, Paris, France

Source: www.europeanpaintings.com

Berthe Morisot came from a well-educated, conservative and cultured family; she and her sister, Edma, were first taught to draw by their father, a monarchist and senior civil servant. As children she and her sister moved wherever their father’s career took them, finally settling in Passy in 1852. Five years later Berthe and Edma took their first formal artistic instruction from a minor academic portraitist and history painter, Geoffroy-Alphonse Chocarne, later studying with the noted Lyons artist, Joseph Guichard. It was Corot, however, with whom Berthe Morisot studied from 1862-68, who influenced her first landscapes, advising her to work en plein air in the forest at Fontainebleau where she also met Daubigny and Guillemet. In 1868 Henri Fantin-Latour introduced her to Edouard Manet, who was to be the most profound influence on her career and whose painterly technique the young Morisot adopted with enthusiasm. Manet asked Morisot to pose for Le Balcon, the first of many of Manet’s canvases in which she would appear; their association led to the Morisot and Manet families becoming friends. She met Manet’s younger brother, Eugène, during a summer the families spent together and in December 1874 the two were married. Though her first submissions to the Salon in 1864 had been well received, and she continued to exhibit there until 1873, she stopped sending work after the 1874 Nader studio exhibition, preferring thenceforth to show with the Impressionists. In 1874 she showed four oils, three pastels, and two watercolors and her works received a few amiable comments; two years later she showed another thirteen oils. By 1876 the critics had noted the emergence of a distinct “impressionist” style, and Morisot’s wholehearted embrace of its forms was not received universally well. Arthur Baignères wrote: “she pushes the system to its extreme, and we feel all the more sorry about this as she has rare talent as a colorist,”[1] while another critic considered that “she particularly is the victim of the system of painting that she adopted.”[2] It was around this time she began focusing on painting out of doors; light became the most important aspect of her pictures as darting brushwork replaced her earlier more conventional style. Morisot’s favorite subject, her daughter Julie, was born four years after her marriage to Eugène. Unlike her sister, Morisot balanced her role of wife and mother with that of artist, continuing to paint, something she had thought earlier to be an impossibility; she had assumed she would have to sacrifice marriage and motherhood for her art. The Manet family lived quietly, preparing for Impressionist shows, traveling (trips to Italy in 1881 and 1882 immensely affected her landscapes) and entertaining their artist friends who including Renoir, Degas and Whistler. The 1890’s saw another change in Morisot’s style, outline returned to her painting and stronger forms lent weight to the compositions. She withdrew somewhat with the death of her husband in 1892, preparing for her first solo show and spending time with her daughter and nieces. Morisot died in 1895, catching influenza while nursing her ill daughter. The sentimentality and sweetness sometimes found in Morisot’s figure paintings, harkening back at times to Fragonard and the 18th century painters, seemed at odds with all descriptions of her personality, suggesting that she painted a peaceful world she sought, not experienced. Her subjects were serene, images of mothers and children, young girls, seascapes, and views of town and country, but she was just the opposite: ambitious, stern and characterized by her husband as having “only an empty shell of a heart.” Her painting was a brave and hopeful face of happiness that masked the despair and insecurity that haunted her throughout her entire life. Morisot was highly self-critical and demanding, yet she was a loving mother and inspired passionate friendships with her contemporaries Degas, Monet, Renoir, Puvis de Chavannes, Mallarmé and the young Henri de Règnier, her presence seeming to calm their quarrels. NOTES [1] Arthur Baignères, L’Echo Universel, 13 April 1876 (cited in San Francisco, The New Painting, Impressionism 1874-1886, 1986, p. 182). [2] Charles Bigot, La Revue Politiques et Littéraire, 8 April 1876 (cited in San Francisco, 1986, op.cit, p. 182). http://www.answers.com/topic/berthe-morisotBritannica Concise Encyclopedia: Berthe Morisot Sponsored LinksBerthe Morisot Art Prints(born Jan. 14, 1841, Bourges, France — died March 2, 1895, Paris) French painter and printmaker. Granddaughter of Jean-Honoré Fragonard, she studied with Camille Corot, but the major influence over her work was Édouard Manet, whose brother she later married. She exhibited regularly with the Impressionists. None of her exhibits proved commercially successful, but she outsold Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley. Her colouring was delicate and subtle, often with a subdued emerald glow, and her subjects were often members of her family. She is best known for her extremely loose brushwork and for the sensitivity she brought to her female subjects. Art Encyclopedia: Berthe-Marie-Pauline Morisot (b Bourges, Cher, 14 Jan 1841; d Paris, 2 March 1895). French painter and printmaker. As the child of upper middle-class parents, Marie-Jos?phine-Corn?lie and Edme Tiburce Morisot, 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 ( fl 1838-57), but in 1858 she and her sister Edma left to study under Joseph-Beno?t 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-Fran?ois Oudinot (1820-91). Through these artists they became familiar with current debates on naturalism and began to work en plein air, painting at Pontoise, Normandy and Brittany (e.g. Thatched Cottage in Normandy, 1865; priv. col., see Angoulvent, no. 11).Biography: Berthe Morisot Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) was one of the influential painters of the French Impressionist school of art. Her delicate and subtle style won her the respect and praise of her colleagues, but she was denied international recognition until long after her death.Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot was born on January 14, 1841, in Bourges, France, into an upper class family. Her parents were married in 1835 when her mother, Marie Cornelie Thomas, was 16. They had two daughters, Marie Elisabeth Yves and Marie Edma Caroline, before Berthe was born. A son, Tiburce, was born between 1845 and 1848. Her father, Edme Tiburce Morisot, was a high-ranking civil servant in the French government. He had studied painting and architecture as a young man. Her grandfather was Jean-Honore Fragonard, an important artist of the Rococo school, who painted aristocratic gardens. Their artistic influences were a major part of Berthe's upbringing. Blessed with a talent for art, she decided at an early age to become a painter. Throughout her life, Berthe's closest relationship was with her sister Marie Edma, who was also an artist. She relied upon her older sister as her strongest critic and best friend.In 1851, when she was only ten, Morisot moved to Paris, where she was given classical art lessons by Joseph-Benoit Guilchard. Initially, the works of classic French landscape artists such as Jean Baptiste Guillement influenced her. As her skills developed, her artistic choices changed also. By 1860 she had become dissatisfied with the teaching of Guilchard.From 1862 to 1868 she continued her classical studies under the guidance of Guilchard's friend, noted landscape artist Camille Cordot. During this time Morisot began to exhibit her work, with her first show at the Salon in Paris in 1864. Cordot was pleased with his protege's work and allowed her to sign her paintings as a "student of Cordot." Morisot went on to exhibit her paintings at Salon shows in 1865, 1866, 1868, 1870, 1872 and 1873.The Influence of ManetIn 1868, Morisot was introduced to artist Edouard Manet and soon became his pupil. His influence drew her away from classical art and into a new form of art that would come to be known as Impressionism. Manet and Morisot complemented one another, expressing mutual admiration as well as influencing each other's style. Morisot, who was a beautiful woman, frequently appeared in Manet's work. His most famous portrait of her is Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets. Among others are The Balcony and Repose.Morisot was influential in arousing Monet's interest in outdoor painting. She encouraged him to abandon the use of black and experiment with the Impressionist "rainbow" palette instead, even though Morisot did not emphasize color as much as most of her Impressionist colleagues. Her paintings continued to show the influence of Manet even after they stopped working closely together.From the moment she met and began studying with Manet, she followed the Impressionistic style. Her subjects, however, differed from those of her colleagues. She shunned the brothel scenes that were popular with Degas and avoided locations where respectable women would not be found alone, such as train stations. Renowned artists such as Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir accepted her as an equal.The Morisot TechniqueMorisot pursued a style that, while unquestioningly Impressionistic, was also uniquely her own. She applied large touches of paint to the canvas in all directions. This technique produced a transparent quality in her work. She omitted detail if it was unnecessary to the overall subject, thus producing a truly impressionistic work.Her work portrayed scenes of everyday life, often with women and children. She also painted landscapes, again incorporating women and children. Her mother and sister made frequent appearances in her paintings. Morisot worked in various mediums, including oils and watercolor. She is best known as a watercolorist. She integrated figures into the design of her paintings using a pastel hue. Her subject, style and frequent use of these pastels produced an intimate atmosphere in her work. Some of her best known works include The Artist's Sister Edma and Their Mother, (1870) The Cradle (1873), Madame Pontillon Seated on the Grass (1873), In a Park,Hanging out the Laundry to Dry,Girl with a Basket,Woman at her Toilet, and La Lecture (1888).A Late MarriageThrough her relationship with Edouard Manet, Morisot met his older brother, Eugene, in 1868. She married him in December 1874. Eugene Manet was a writer and political activist who encouraged her to continue with her work. Their home at 4 rue de la Princess in Bougival on the Seine soon became a gathering place for artists and the literary lions of the day. Among her closest friends was the Symbolist poet Stephane Mallarme.Morisot and Manet had a daughter, Julie, born in 1878. As a result of her marriage and motherhood, she began focusing increased attention on domestic and family scenes in her paintings.An Impressionist LeaderFor the most part, the Impressionists recorded garden and landscape scenes. While the classical artists such as Jean-Honore Fragonard, Morisot's grandfather, had been drawn to the elegance and grand scope of aristocratic gardens, the Impressionists took to public parks, common gardens and everyday locations.Initially, the public and the press rejected the Impressionists as a band of renegades and revolutionaries. Among the Impressionists, only Degas and Morisot were accepted each time they submitted works to the prestigious Salon exhibition, while others, such as Frederic Bazille, Camille Pissarro, Renoir, Monet and Paul Cezanne were often rejected.The Salon exhibit of 1868 resulted in many favorable reviews for the Impressionist artists despite the decision of the hanging committee to place many of their pictures in unflattering locations. There were still detractors, however. By 1870 there were still mixed reviews for the Impressionist artists.After the Franco-Prussian war, funding for artists evaporated. This, coupled with disenchantment for the Salon system, encouraged the Impressionists to formulate plans for an independent show. On April 15, 1874, the "Premiere Exposition" of 165 works of art opened to the public. This was a corporation composed of artists funded the exhibition. Morisot was one of the charter members of the group. Although the group included artists of the Academic style, the Impressionists were the driving force. Morisot's paintings were featured in the show. Except for 1879, she continued showing her works annually until the last group exhibition in 1886.A small group representing the Impressionists, including Morisot, Renoir, and Monet, organized their own auction to sell their work. On March 24, 1875, 72 paintings went on sale. The auction was a dismal failure, as was a similar sale in May 1877. It took time and continued effort before the Impressionists gained acceptance.Belated RecognitionMorisot's style continued to develop in her later years, Her brother-in-law, friend and mentor, Edouard Manet, died in 1883. After his death, Berthe Morisot came under the influence of Renoir.Morisot's husband died on April 13, 1892, after a lengthy illness. In 1895, while nursing her sick daughter, Morisot developed a fatal case of pneumonia. She died in Paris on March 2, 1895 and was buried at Passy cemetery next to Eugene and Edouard Manet.Morisot believed in the capabilities of all women. "I don't think there has ever been a man who treated a woman as an equal and that's all I would have asked, for I know I'm worth as much as they," she once said. But she lived in a time when equal treatment was rare. Even though she produced more than 860 paintings, her death certificate states she had "no profession."Morisot left her collection of Degas, Monet and Renoir paintings to her daughter, Julie Manet. After her death, she became known more for being a friend and model of Edouard Manet than an artist in her own right. Although Morisot's work was generally well reviewed when it was exhibited, she did not become known internationally as an artist until 1905, when the London Impressionist exhibition displayed 13 of her paintings. It took almost a full century before Berthe Morisot's work received the credit it deserved.BooksA Day in the Country, edited by Andrea P.A. Belloli, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984.Dictionary of Art, edited by Bernard S. Myers, McGraw-Hill, 1969.Encarta Encyclopedia, Microsoft, 1998.Higonnet, Anne, Berthe Morisot, Harper and Row, 1990.Hutchinson Dictionary of the Arts, Infonautics, 2000.Janson, H.W. and Anthony F. Janson, History of Art, Harry N. Abrams, 1997.Oxford Companion to Art, edited by Harold Osborne, Clarendon Press, 1996.Simon, Matila, Shorewood Art Reference Guide, Shorewood Reproductions, 1970.World Book Encyclopedia, World Book, 2000.PeriodicalsArt Journal, September 22, 1994. Entertainment Weekly, July 13, 1990.Online"Berthe Morisot," art.com,http://www.hearts-eas…h-c/impressionist/morisot/bio.html (November 24, 2000)."Berthe Morisot," WetCanvas.com,http://www.wetcanvas.com/Museum/Artists/m/Berthe-Morisot/ (November 24, 2000)."Berthe Pauline Morisot (1841-1895)," crossview,http://www.mcs.csuhayward.edu/~mal…Impression/Morisot/Morisot1cv.html (November 24, 2000)."Morisot, Berthe," Britannica.com,http://www.britannica…cle/3/0,5716,55113+1+53761.00.html (November 24, 2000). French Literature Companion: Berthe Morisot (1841-95). French painter. While concentrating on a more limited range of subjects (notably domestic and garden scenes) than many of her male colleagues in the Impressionist movement, Morisot made a discreet but decisive contribution through her influence on Manet during the 1870s, her efforts on behalf of the Impressionist exhibitions between 1874 and 1886, and her own audacious adaptation of its formal innovations. Mallarmé paid tribute to her achievement in his preface to the catalogue of the exhibition held in 1896 on the first anniversary of her death.Columbia Encyclopedia: Berthe Morisot French impressionist painter. She studied with many gifted painters, including Corot. She formed a close friendship with Manet, who became her brother-in-law, and she served as model for several of his best-known 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. Her paintings formed an important addition to all but one impressionist exhibit from 1874 through 1885. Her most notable works, including Young Woman at the Dance (1880; Paris) and La Toilette (Art Inst., Chicago), are painted in clear, luminous colors. Her early subject matter included landscapes and marine scenes; later she most frequently painted tranquil portraits of mothers and children. Morisot's works have been particularly popular in the United States, and many important works are in American collections.See catalog (ed. by D. Rouart, 1960); her correspondence (ed. by D. Rouart; tr., 2d ed. 1959).http://www.renoirinc.com/biography/artists/morisotlg.htmBerthe Morisot was a woman of extraordinary talents who carved for herself a career within the art world of nineteenth century Paris. She was one of only a few women who exhibited with both the Paris Salon and the highly influential and innovative Impressionists. Her work endures today as a major representative of the Impressionist school. Morisot's art depicts the world of the bourgeoise , their clothes, their lifestyle, their surroundings, and her relationships. Through her unusual talent, the modern viewer can see the usual, everyday life led by the nineteenth century bourgeoises. Berthe Morisot was born in 1841 (the same year as Pierre Auguste Renoir, her future colleague, advisor, and friend) to Edmé-Tiburce Morisot and Marie Corneille Thomas. Though her father had aspired to follow his father's footsteps and become an architect, Mr. Morisot was in the service of the government. No mere civil servant, Morisot steadily rose to become prefect of the Département du Cher by the time Berthe was born. After the family moved to the Parisian suburb of Passy during the revolutionary year of 1848, Berthe's father continued to work as a highly paid government official. His family was able to live a comfortably well off, haute-bourgeois lifestyle.In 1858 Madame Morisot inspired her daughters to paint. She desired that the three girls take art lessons so that they could present a birthday gift to their father. She sent them first to the academic painter Geoffrey Alphonse Chocarne who focused his teachings on drawing, and soon afterward to Joseph Benoît Guichard, a former student of both Ingres and Delacroix. Though the eldest daughter quickly decided that she was not interested in continuing these lessons, Edmé and Berthe enthusiastically applied themselves to his instruction. Under Guichard's tutelage, the Morisot sisters began to journey to the Louvre in order to study the old masters first hand. This was a self-educational technique which Berthe would return to all of her life.After three years of studio work under the supervision of Guichard, Berthe decided that she wished to study the plein air motif under master landscapist Corot. Edmé joined her sister with these weekly lessons. As part of Corot's instruction, the Morisots embarked on summer-long painting trips to picturesque locales. In 1862, they rode mules through the Pyrenees. In order to accommodate these expeditions, the Morisot family organized their holidays around Berthe and Edmé's art work for there was no question that the two would have set off on such an experience unchaperoned. The Morisots gave constructive support to the painting aspirations of their daughters. M. Morisot had a studio build in the garden for Edmé and Berthe to work in and Mme Morisot attended all of the exhibitions.Edmé and Berthe maintained close, intimate ties as sisters and this closeness showed both in their personal and artistic lives. Though only two examples of Edmé Morisot's work survives, one is an 1863 portrait of her sister Berthe at work. In defiance of the fashion of the day, Berthe, who seems completely absorbed in her painting, wears no hoopskirt which would have gotten in the way of her work. Instead, she wears a practical skirt, blouse, and jacket. The position of Berthe's easel in relation to the viewer suggests that she and Edmé painted side by side. This painting only came to the public view in 1961--it was considered an intimate portrait and remained in the possession of Edmé Pontillon's descendants. In early 1869, after twelve years of study and collaboration with her sister Berthe, Edmé Morisot married a naval officer, Adolphe Pontillon. Her marriage marked the end of her serious pursuance of painting. However, letters to Berthe soon after her wedding indicate that Edmé missed both the artistic challenge and the camaraderie engendered by working with her sister.When Edmé returned to the Morisot household in the winter of 1869-70 to await the birth of her first child, in a series of two paintings, Berthe depicted some of the most intimate portraits of bourgeois womanhood. In Portrait of Cornélie Morisot and Edmé Pontillon [Mother and Sister of the Artist], she portrayed her mother reading to her visibly pregnant sister within the family's drawing room. Its companion piece, entitled Woman at the Window [Portrait of Edmé Pontillon] has the still pregnant Edmé seated inside a room in front of the open verandah door.After Edmé's marriage and the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in August of 1870, Berthe Morisot went through a period of re-evaluation. Though she was well regarded in artistic circles early in her career, she often doubted her work. It was at this time that she began to cast her lot with the impressionists whom she met through her influential friend, Edouard Manet. The artworld of nineteenth-century France was dominated by the French Academy and its premier teaching institution, L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts which selected art juries, administered the art examinations, and sponsored the Salon, the annual art exhibition. The Salon, originally located within the Louvre, was held after 1857 in the vast Palais de l'Industrie. Here, artists' work was displayed in what was the single most important exhibition in France. The jurists were invariably academicians who frequently rejected artwork which did not conform to the established rubrics of the day. Edouard Manet was one of this new generation of artists who was dissatisfied with the Salon. His 1865 Olympia and Le déjeuner sur l'herbe were controversial enough for him to be excluded from the 1866 Salon. In retaliation, he chose to mount his own exhibition, whose centerpiece was The Balcony, an 1869 work for which he had persuaded Berthe to pose. In this painting, Manet makes clear his admiration for Morisot. Unlike the other two figures who seem benign and affable, Morisot has an almost gypsy-like fire.Though this painting made a lasting impression upon the viewing public, Manet's alternative exhibition was not a success. Nonetheless, he continued to encourage and support Berthe's contributions to the Salon. Through Manet, who admired her work greatly, Berthe Morisot became influenced by other artists whose work had gained some notoriety for their new interpretation of subject matter, and their incorporation of light, and color into their art. One reason Berthe Morisot cast her lot with the Impressionists may have been the new revitalization by the Impressionists of the genre scene in their art. In the years immediately preceding her 1874 debut exhibition with the Impressionists, most of Berthe's work were indeed genre scenes. However, unlike most of the Impressionists, Morisot's works were favorably critiqued by the Salon. Her most famous, The Cradle, was a painting of her sister Edmé gazing at her new born daughter Jeanne, electrified the exhibition of 1872. Edouard Manet who resolutely refused to join up with the Impressionists because he felt that their efforts against the Salon, perhaps after his own failed attempts to counter the art establishment, would be futile, tried to dissuade Morisot from ruining her good track record. Nonetheless, despite his efforts, Berthe Morisot began to exhibit with the Impressionists and did so every year until the last exhibition in 1886 with the exception of the year her daughter Julie Manet was born in 1878. Among this group, she voiced her opinion and gave advice to such up and coming artists as Georges Seurat. Indeed, his work Sunday Afternoon on the Grande Jatte was included in the 1886 exhibition because of her sponsorship.Unlike her sister Edmé, Berthe Morisot (she continued to paint under her own name) was determined to continue her art after her marriage with Manet's brother, Eugene in 1874. Morisot's output, always prolific, never flagged. This was certainly helped by the fact that her husband both gave her the freedom to do so and was supportive of her efforts. Marriage gave Berthe financial, social, and emotional stability which encouraged her to expand her professional role. The Manet family fortune gave Berthe Morisot enough income to pursue her art.Berthe Morisot worked out of her home. However, unlike Renoir, Manet, Monet, or Degas, her workrooms were not part of the public space of the house. She relegated them to the back of the house where at the end of the day, she would hide her paints and brushes. Though art was the dominating force in the lives of her male colleagues, Berthe Morisot was also a wife and mother. Two roles which, though not exclusive from her art, nonetheless were equally important to her. Between her 1874 marriage and her death in 1895, Berthe Morisot produced over 350 works of art, most of which featured either women or children. Two thirds of these paintings featured either her sisters, their families, or her own daughter Julie. Indeed, Julie Manet became a favorite subject of study. From the infant in Wet Nurse to the adolescent portrayed in Julie au Violon, or Julie Manet and Greyhound Laërtes, Berthe Morisot recorded her daughter's childhood in loving detail. After her husband Eugene's death in 1893, Julie and Berthe became very close. The two traveled and drew together. Julie seems to have inherited some of both her mother's and the Manet family's artistic talent. However, this was not to last long. After nursing Julie through a bout of influenza, Berthe developed pneumonia and quickly experienced a decline. She died on March 2, 1895.Though the nineteenth century did not produce many women artists of Berthe Morisot's caliber and fame, those other women who were successful artists, such as Eva Gonzales, Marie Bracquemond, and Mary Cassatt, all came from similar backgrounds. This is not surprising for, the upper middle class was uniquely suited to producing educated women. Unlike women of the lower and working class, bourgeoises had the leisure and the financial support to pursue their interests, so long as they did not go against what was considered proper behavior.In the last decades, several art historians have focused upon Berthe Morisot's depiction of women within the clearly delineated roles and physical spaces which were acceptable for bourgeois women during the nineteenth century. Most of the physical spaces were either associated with the upper middle class home such as drawing rooms as depicted in Portrait of Mme Boursier and her Daughter, balconies, In a Villa at the Seaside, and private gardens as in Woman and Child in a Garden. Morisot also painted outdoor scenes, which were places that respectable bourgeoises frequented such as parks and scenic overlooks (View of Paris from the Trocadero, 1872), or modes of transport, which enclosed women such as boats, and carriages, A Summer's Day, 1879. These interiors and exteriors represented the settings in which most bourgeoise lived their lives. As a member of this class, Berthe Morisot would herself have spent time in these locales and there would have chosen to paint her subjects. Before her marriage, Berthe Morisot's position as a respectable member of the haute-bourgeoisie impacted her ability to move within artistic circles. Though she had seen him at various art exhibitions and knew of his work, Berthe Morisot had to wait, in accordance with bourgeois etiquette, until a mutual friend (the painter Fantin-Latour) could introduce her to her future mentor and brother-in-law, Edouard Manet. Once married, Berthe Morisot could move more frequently within the artistic circle. Her house at 4, rue de la Princesse in Bougival became a social and inspirational center for the Impressionists. By 1885 she had begun to hold regular soirees for friends that were artists or writers, including Mallarmé. However, some social barriers could still not be crossed. Because of Morisot's sex and social position, she could not join her male colleagues at the cafes where they casually convened. Respectable women, married or unmarried, simply did not frequent these establishments.Although Morisot was unusual for her class and time in that she successfully pursued an artistic career whilst combining it with marriage and motherhood, she never forsaked her bourgeoise background. In her art and in her lifestyle, she reflected the standards of behavior and propriety required of the nineteenth century bourgeoises. Through her depictions of her sisters, their families, and her own daughter Julie Manet, Berthe Morisot portrays an intimacy between women within the realism of the feminine world. Her art remains as a record for the twentieth century and beyond of the feminine world of the bourgeoises.

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