Berthe Morisot, Woman Impressionist

Janelle Montgomery: Morisot was a respected member of a cohort of painters we know as “the Impressionists,” and yet her work is very rarely studied, or even exhibited even today. How did you go about choosing the works for this show and organizing them into the exhibition, and what does it tell us not only about Morisot, but also about the Impressionists?

Dr. Nicole Myers: It’s really surprising that Morisot was one of the founding members of the French impressionist group — she was the only woman to join this rebel band of artists in 1874 — and she was really well known and celebrated and praised in her time and yet in the 20th century her role has been diminished — sometimes eliminated —in the telling of the story of French Impressionism. So, the goal of our project of course is really to re-establish her reputation, and and give visitors a chance to see her work because so many are in private collection.

Inventing Impressionism

Art historian Jacky Klein explores the story of this gifted female Impressionist painter in this video from ArtFundUK.

“Le féminisme en art”: Berthe Morisot

Morisot’s Importance in the Impressionist Movement

Berthe Morisot, “Woman Impressionist,” Emerges from the Margins.

Berthe Morisot’s Early Life and Education

Morisot was born in Bourges, France, into an affluent bourgeois family. Her father, Edmé Tiburce Morisot, was the prefect of the department of Cher. He also studied architecture at École des Beaux Arts. Her mother, Marie-Joséphine-Cornélie Thomas, was the great-niece of Jean-Honoré Fragonard, one of the most prolific Rococo painters of the ancien régime. She…