Berthe Morisot: The Overlooked Impressionist Pioneer

Berthe Morisot, born January 14, 1841 in Bourges, France, into a wealthy bourgeois family, was the daughter of a high-ranking civil servant and the great-granddaughter of painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Her family moved to Passy near Paris, a cultural hub, fostering her artistic upbringing. Despite being barred from the École des Beaux-Arts due to her gender, she trained under Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, painting en plein air. She met Édouard Manet, who frequently painted her, and later married his brother Eugène Manet. In 1873, at age 32, she became the only woman to join the nascent Impressionist movement, participating in the first Impressionist exhibition at Nadar's studio with nine works. She remained an active member, exhibiting in all subsequent Impressionist shows, pausing only briefly after the birth of her daughter Julie Manet. Morisot's work focused on intimate domestic scenes and female subjects, offering a unique perspective often inaccessible to male painters. Despite her foundational role, she was buried at 54 with a tombstone reading "Berthe Morisot, widow of Eugène Manet" and her death certificate listed her as "without profession." A retrospective a year after her death featured 394 works, yet her name remains overshadowed among the great Impressionists.