Berthe Morisot

Berthe Morisot is a French Impressionist painter, major figure of the movement and the only woman of the founding group to establish herself with a work of remarkable originality and audacity. Coming from the upper bourgeoisie, she transgresses the social conventions of her time to devote herself fully to painting, developing a personal style characterized by fluid and rapid brushstrokes, intimate compositions and a luminous palette of delicate whites, grays and greens. Her scenes of domestic and feminine life - women at their toilet, young girls in the garden, maternities - do not belong to a minor genre but affirm the artistic dignity of feminine experience and bourgeois everyday life through sophisticated pictorial technique and modern sensitivity. Sister-in-law and model of Édouard Manet who encourages her in her career, she also influences him towards a freer and more luminous facture. Exhibiting at seven of the eight Impressionist exhibitions, she establishes herself as a professional artist in her own right despite the prejudices of her time, and her work of exceptional freshness and spontaneity is today recognized as one of the most accomplished and innovative of Impressionism.