Berthe Morisot A Woman and Child in a Garden About 1884

Biography

Born 1841
Died 1895
Nationality French
Birth place Bourges
Death place Paris

Berthe Morisot’s passion for painting was apparent from an early age, and she persuaded her parents to allow her to have professional tuition. In 1861 she began to work out of doors at Ville d'Avray as Corot's pupil, and from 1864 to 1873 she exhibited fairly regularly at the Salon. In 1868 she met Edouard Manet, whose art she greatly admired. She married his brother Eugène six years later. When the first Impressionist exhibition was held in 1874, Morisot joined the group and agreed never again to send work to the Salon. Morisot was a faithful exhibitor at seven of the eight Impressionist exhibitions (1874-1886). Like the other Impressionist painters, she was preoccupied by capturing light, but she also used broad strokes of colour that echo what she had observed in Manet’s work.

Glossary terms

Glossary terms

Impressionism

An influential style of painting that originated in France in the 1870s with artists such as Claude Monet, Pierre-August Renoir and Alfred Sisley. They were interested in capturing the changing effects of light, frequently exploring this through landscape scenes painted in the open air.