norman lebrecht<\/p>\n
January 15, 2026<\/p>\n
My favourite Impressionist painter is, surprisingly to some, a woman, who was born 185 years ago this week on 14th\u00a0 January 14th 1841.<\/p>\n
Berthe Morisot was the only woman among the founding Impressionists and a true innovator. Nobody imagined in the mid-19th century that a well-brought up young woman could ever become a famous professional artist.<\/p>\n
An upper-class girl, Berthe and her sister Edma, chaperoned, of course, spent much of their time copying classical paintings in the Louvre but, because they were girls and despite their obvious talent, were excluded from studying at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, the usual way for artists to be noticed and supported.<\/p>\n
At the Louvre, Berthe had met and became friends with other artists such as Manet and Monet. Another friend, Corot, introduced her to plein air (outdoor) painting at which she excelled. Like Degas, she often mixed media, sometimes combining watercolour, pastels and oil in a single painting.<\/p>\n
Her subject matter was what she knew best and was part of, the private moments of women. She painted them without objectifying them, as was done by her fellow artists. Her technique was entirely her own though influenced by Degas, Renoir and especially her friend, Edouard Manet. Although she married his brother, Eugene, the love between her and Edouard was evident from their many letters. Even their techniques were in tune down to similar brushstrokes and use of colour.<\/p>\n
Berthe Morisot\u2019s paintings were accepted into the snooty Salon,the official art exhibition of the Acad\u00e9mie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, for eight successive years until she changed direction in 1863 and opted to join the likes of Paul C\u00e9zanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley, James M. Whistler and Edouard Manet and show her work in the Salon des Refus\u00e9s.<\/p>\n
This was an exhibition held by order of Emperor Napoleon III to exhibit those works refused by the selection committee of that year\u2019s official Paris Salon. They included such paintings as \u00c9douard Manet\u2019s D\u00e9jeuner sur l\u2019herbe and James McNeill Whistler\u2019s Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl.<\/p>\n
It was an astounding success. More than a thousand visitors a day visited the Salon des Refus\u00e9s. The journalist \u00c9mile Zola reported that visitors pushed to get into the crowded galleries where the refused paintings were hung.\u200b
It had its detractors. The critic Albert Wolff wrote in Le Figaro that the Impressionists consisted of \u201cfive or six lunatics of which one is a woman\u2026[whose] feminine grace is maintained amid the outpourings of a delirious mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morisot\u2019s painting was recognised and admired by critics and fellow artists although her struggle to be taken seriously as an artist frustrated her. She wrote, \u201cI don\u2019t think there has ever been a man who treated a woman as an equal and that\u2019s all I would have asked for, for I know I\u2019m worth as much as they.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200b
She was. In February 2013, Morisot became the highest priced female artist of all time, when After Lunch (1881), a portrait of a young redhead in a straw hat and purple dress, sold for $10.9 million at a Christie\u2019s auction, three times its upper estimate.\u200b<\/p>\n