From an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, NY in 2023/24 on the relationship of Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas
Berthe Morisot, 1841-1895, French,
Édouard Manet, 1832-1883, French
Edgar Degas, 1834-1917, French
Berthe Morisot met Édouard Manet in 1868, was his long-time friend, co-toiler in the vineyards of Impressionism, and, from 1874, his sister-in-law, by reason of her marriage to his brother, Eugène Manet.
(Berthe Morisot in) The Repose, 1871, oil on canvas.
Édouard Manet, 1832-1883, French. Rhode Island School of Design Museum, RI loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY in 2023/24
Berthe Morisot’s work was widely admired. She produced approximately 400 paintings; but, in her lifetime, sold only 40.
Berthe Morisot with A Bouquet of Violets, 1872, oil on canvas
Édouard Manet, 1832-1883, French. Musee d’Orsay, Paris loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY in 2023/4
Violets are a symbol of both the commitment of love, and of mourning. One is on her heart. Others she is holding. Morisot is in mourning clothing.
However, it is is not clear whether this image is about the mourning of a physical death or a regret about the impossibility of the love of the married Édouard Manet and Morisot, still single in 1872.
It was Edgar Degas, also a close friend, who invited Morisot into the circle of the Impressionists. Her work was included in seven of the eight Impressionist exhibitions between 1874 and 1886.
Her work remains in the deep shadow of all her male Impressionist peers.
Morisot died of illness in 1895. She and Manet were long survived by Edgar Degas.
Shocked by the early death of Manet (1883), Degas began an admiring evaluation of Manet’s work not contaminated by the critical (but creative) rivalry which had pervaded their working friendship.
Édouard Manet Standing, c. 1868, brush and ink wash over graphite
Edgar Degas, 1834-1917, French. Musee d’Orsay loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY in 2023/24
Museum guidance was that Degas rarely used ink wash which, however, was a favourite medium of Manet.
as above
This was Degas slipped into Manet’s mind/hand/eye.
An insight into their consideration of and influence on each other; and a compliment from one man to the other.
This portrait Degas gifted to Morisot’s daughter, Manet’s niece, when she came to marry.
This was his retrospective gift, as it were, to Manet and to Morisot.
(There are no clear portraits of Degas created by Manet.)
After Manet’s death, Degas quickened the rate at which he bought Manet’s work. He acquired eight paintings, and drawings and prints. He lived with these close for the rest of his life.
This 1874 image of Berthe Morisot, grief-stricken, haggard, at the death of her father in the year she married, was the last painting of Manet which Degas bought, two years after Morisot herself died.
Berthe Morisot in Mourning, 1874, oil on canvas.
Édouard Manet, 1832-188, French. Private loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY in 2023/4