BIOGRAPHY BERTHE MORISOT – French painter, Berthe Morisot is one of the leading figures of the Impressionist movement. The muse of Édouard Manet is also recognized for his feminine paintings, in particular “Le Berceau”.
Short biography of Berthe Morisot – Berthe Morisot, born in Bourges in 1841, is one of the only female figures of the avant-garde movement that is theimpressionism. His passion for painting is no coincidence: the artist has, on his mother’s side, ties of kinship with the painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Encouraged by her family, Berthe Morisot sent her first paintings to the Salon de peinture et de sculpture in 1864, where two of her paintings were accepted. The following year, she presented paintings again, and caused a sensation with Thatched cottage in Normandy, where we can see his particular style and his original talent. She made many meetings thanks to the evenings organized between families of the same condition: thus, her circle of friends grew and she rubbed shoulders with artists such as Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Auguste Renoir or Claude Monet. It is alongside the latter that the young woman will participate in 1873 in the creation of the “Société anonyme cooperative des artistes painters, sculpteurs et engravers”, in an attempt to break with the classicism and conventionality specific to the artistic circles of France. era that prevented them from exhibiting their creations. This event lays the foundations of the Impressionist movement. Berthe Morisot died in 1895, at the age of 54.
Berthe Morisot and Edouard Manet met in Paris between 1867 and 1868, more specifically at the Louvre museum. The two painters will quickly sympathize and become very close friends. Manet initially had an influence on the work of his comrade, but the latter will gradually detach himself from it by adopting less dull colors. Besides, she didn’t particularly appreciate his criticism or his habit of unwittingly modifying the canvases she painted. It is certainly Berthe Morisot who had the most impact on her elder brother, both in her relationship to art and in her own creations. The young woman indeed served as model to Manet on multiple occasions when he wanted to paint female portraits. Several works of the impressionist painter bear his name, for example Berthe Morisot with a bouquet of violets (1872), Berthe Morisot extended (1873) or Berthe Morisot with a fan (1874). Chances are, the two people had feelings stronger than just friendship. However, it was Manet’s younger brother, Eugène, who married Berthe Morisot in 1874, making the latter the sister-in-law of the author of Luncheon on the Grass.
Completed in 1872, this oil painting on canvas, 56 cm high and 46.5 cm wide, is one of Berthe Morisot’s most famous works. It represents the artist’s big sister, Edma Morisot (Pontillon), watching over a newborn baby, his daughter Blanche, in a large cradle. This touching and tender scene of life between a mother and her child wonderfully illustrates the artist’s vision of women at the end of the 19th century, who should no longer be considered as a simple procreator. This attraction for the role of mother and childhood is found later in a number of his paintings. Presented for the first time during the Impressionist exhibition in 1874, the canvas was subsequently kept by Edma Morisot’s family until 1930, when it was entrusted to the Louvre. It is now kept at Orsay Museum in the 7th arrondissement of Paris.
Most of Berthe Morisot’s paintings are oils on canvas. They often have the habit of staging women during moments of everyday life. This can be outdoors, as for Summer day (1879) where two fashionable women sail by boat on the lake in the Bois de Boulogne. Or during more intimate indoor moments, for example with Woman at her toilet (1875). Berthe Morisot often takes as a model people of her close entourage, in particular her sister Edma for The cradle, but also for Reading in 1867 and Young woman at her window (Portrait of Mme Pontillon) in 1869. From the 1880s, his daughter Julie appeared on several paintings by her mother, sometimes alongside her father Eugène Manet. One of Berthe Morisot’s last paintings entitled The Cherry Tree (1891) represents her in the middle of the harvest with her cousin Jeannie Gobillard (future wife of the poet Paul Valéry). Finally, the impressionist artist knew how to diversify and also appreciated painting landscapes such as The Garden at Bougival (1881), as well as watercolors.
- January 14, 1841: Birth of Berthe Morisot
- Berthe Morisot was born on January 14, 1841 in Bourges in the department of Cher. She is the daughter of Edmé Tiburce Morisot and Marie Joséphine Cornélie Thomas. She is the penultimate of a family of four children, with two older sisters (Yves and Edma) and a younger brother (Tiburce). She will remain particularly close to her sister Edma, who is also passionate about painting, who will serve as her model on numerous occasions. The two young girls will be supported by their parents and receive private lessons from important painters of the time such as Joseph Guichard and Camille Corot. However, they will not be able to integrate the prestigious School of Fine Arts in Paris, access being at that time prohibited to women.
- March 2, 1895: Death of Berthe Morisot
- Berthe Morisot died on March 2, 1895 in Paris. The exact reasons for his death are sometimes debated, but one of the most plausible causes seems to come from the consequences of syphilis. Her husband Eugene had indeed died three years earlier of complications from the disease, so it is very likely that his wife may have contracted the disease as well. His daughter Julie Manet, born in 1878, was subsequently taken care of by the poet Stéphane Mallarmé, very close to Berthe Morisot with whom he corresponded regularly since 1876. A TV movie retracing the artist’s life was released in 2013, directed by Caroline Champetier.
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