Morisot, Berthe Biography

American Impressionist portrait artist Berthe Morisot was born into a wealthy family and when she was growing up her parents encouraged her to take art lessons but didn’t want Morisot to be a professional artist. In 1864, she exhibited in the prestigious Salon de Paris, the annual exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1877, Manet invited Morisot to exhibit in the first Salon des Refusés so she was part of the first exhibition where the group called themselves 'impressionists'. She participated in all of the Impressionist exhibitions except for the one in 1879 because of illness. Berthe Morisot’s paintings were often of people at home or outdoors. She was known for painting in loose, quick brush strokes. You can really see all the brushstrokes in her paintings as she didn’t make the surface smooth or flat. However, in the last years of her the rapid brushstrokes which had defined her practice for years became clearer, and her images came back into focus.

View Morisot, Berthe paintings here.