Marias Art Blog: Berthe Morisot

Berthe was a versatile French impressionism painter whose work ranged from landscapes to portraits. She was born on the fourteenth of January, 1841 in Bourgeois, France. Her grandfather was named Jean Honore Fragonard and her father was a government official. She had a sister named Edma. These two learned to paint young and together they traveled to Paris to learn more art. She learned from Joseph Guichard and Camile Corot and befriended other artists such as Edouard Manet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and others. Her work led her to have a regular spot at the Salon for years. In 1874 she married the younger brother to Edouard Manet, Eugene and stayed with him until his death in 1892. As her life went on she became a flexible artist learning and experimenting with many mediums such as oil paints, watercolors, and others. On the second of March in 1895 she died at the age of 54.

Some major influences in Berthe’s work was the impressionism movement and Edouard Manet. Being taught at first about painting in the classical art, Manet led her on a different path. One that would introduce her to an art to be known as Impressionism. However this was a two way road for these two so as Manet influenced Berthe she also influenced him. She was very beautiful and Manet would use her in some of his works, one of these being The Balcony. She influenced an interest in outdoor painting within him and tried to get him to use less black and use more colors. However even though he introduced her to impressionism he did not fully agree with it. He did not affiliate himself as part of her impressionist group of friends but even so she stayed loyal to her ideas and friends.

Once introduced to impressionism she started painting more in the impressionist style and came to be an important figure in the impressionism era. In impressionism the artist paints images of an object in the way someone would see it if they had just caught a glimpse of it. It’s a style that uses bright and bold colors but it doesn't concentrate too much on detail. This style also consists of mainly outdoor scenes because only in the outdoors will an artist be able to find so much naturally colorful scenes. With her background being combined with this new form Berthe ended developing her own impressionist style. Her technique consisted of using large amounts of paint on her canvas. This technique led to a transparent quality in her work. She concentrated on the colors and strokes and less on the detail. Her style used many women and children and concentrated mostly on outdoor scenes that were about everyday life. Even in her landscapes women and children were incorporated. She used different mediums but mainly used oils and watercolors and was known as a water colorist. Even though this style was impressionist it was all her own and many artists, such as Manet, respected this style of hers. Some of her impressionist work that show her style are Hide and Seek, The Cradle, and In Wheat Field.