The Cradle

Berthe Morisot · 1872

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Berthe Morisot

France · 1841–1895

Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot was a French painter, printmaker and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists. In 1864, Morisot exhibited for the first time in the highly esteemed Paris Salon, listed as a student of Joseph Guichard and Achille-Francois Oudinot. Her work was selected for exhibition in six subsequent Salons until, in 1874, she joined the "rejected" Impressionists in the first of their own exhibitions, which included Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley. It was held at the studio of the photographer Nadar. Morisot went on to participate in all but one of the following eight impressionist exhibitions, between 1874 and 1886.

Independent artist guide by Momentable. Biography from Wikipedia; artworks credited to the museums that hold them.

Stream Berthe Morisot

The Cradle — The living window: art moves here the way it moves in your living room.

life: 1841–1895life
rights: Public domainrights

The work

A selection of 5 works, free to stream.

Reclining Nude Shepherdess
Berthe Morisot · 1891
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Young Girl in a Mantelet
Berthe Morisot · 1880
Tel Aviv Museum of Art

On the Island
Berthe Morisot · 1880
Tel Aviv Museum of Art

The Psyche mirror
Berthe Morisot · 1876
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Works worth knowing

2 of Berthe Morisot's works, and what makes each one worth a look.

How Berthe Morisot worked

From the record of their own practice.

In 1890, Morisot wrote in a notebook about her struggles to be taken seriously as an artist: "I don't think there has ever been a man who treated a woman as an equal and that's all I would have asked for, for I know I'm worth as much as they." Her light brush-strokes often led to critics using the verb "effleurer" (to touch lightly, brush against) to describe her technique. In her early life, Morisot painted in the open air, as did other Impressionists, to look for truths in observation. Around 1880 she began painting on unprimed canvases, a technique Manet and Eva Gonzalès also experimented with at the time, and her brush-work became looser. In 1888–1889, her brush-strokes transitioned from short, rapid strokes to long, sinuous ones that define form.