Berthe Morisot, Hollyhock, oil on canvas, 1880, Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
Berthe Morisot
French Impressionist Painter
Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot, born on January 14th, 1841 in Bourges, was one of only three women who were members of the French Impressionist group of artists in Paris. Daughter of Edme Tiburce Morisot, a high-level government official, and Marie Cornélie Mayniel, also the daughter of a high-level government official, Morisot was expected to become a French society hostess; ladies did not have careers. The talented and driven Morisot became an artist anyway.
Morisot married Eugène Manet, brother of Édouard Manet, a suitable match because he also was a member of the haute bourgeois. She enjoyed a fruitful friendship with her brother-in-law, encouraging Édouard to paint en plein air (outdoors) and inviting him into the Impressionist circle of artists.
