Olga's Gallery

Berthe Morisot at Artprice. To look at auction records, find Morisot's works in upcoming auctions, check price levels and indexes for her works, read her biography and view her signature, access the Artprice database.             Berthe Morisot, a French painter, was the daughter of a top civil servant in the Department of Cher and a grand-niece of the Rococo painter Fragonard. She started to take lessons in drawing in 1857. Berthe Morisot was a tireless copyist. She began with the Old Masters and ended with Corot, whose work she had the advantage of discussing with the artist himself. In 1860-1862 she was a pupil of Corot with her sister Edna (later Mme Pontillon). Corot advised her to go to Auvers-sur-Oise and learn to paint plein-air.
            In 1864, Berthe exhibited her first landscapes in the Salon. In 1868, she got acquainted and soon became friends with Manet, who gave her advice and painted her portraits (Repose, The Balcony, etc.). In 1872, she traveled in Spain. Starting with 1874 and until 1886 she exhibited at all the Impressionists exhibitions apart from the 4th due to illness. In 1874, she married Manet’s brother Eugène. In 1881-1883, they had a house built in Paris which became a weekly meeting place for painters and writers such as Degas, Caillebotte, Monet, Pissaro, Whistler, Puvis de Chavannes, Duret, Renoir, Mallarmé and others. Mallarmé became her closest friend and greatest admirer. Berthe painted especially women and children, and was the leading female exponent of Impressionism.
            In 1892, she was widowed, bought a château in Mesnil. In 1895, after her death a large memorial exhibition took place at Durand-Ruel’s with 300 pictures; the catalogue introduction was written by Mallarmé. With her fresh, bright impressions of happy domestic life, she made an important contribution to Impressionism.

Bibliography:
Berthe Morisot: The First Lady of Impressionism by Margaret Shennan. Sutton Publishing, 2000.
Berthe Morisot by Anne Higonnet. University of California Press, 1995.
Berthe Morisot by Kathleen Adler, Tamar Garb. Phaidon Press Inc., 1995.
Impressionist Quartet : The Intimate Genius of Manet and Morisot, Degas and Cassatt by Jeffrey Meyers. Harcourt, 2005.