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Gift of the Jesuit Community at Saint Joseph’s UniversityLabel
This etching portrays Julie Manet, the famous model and daughter of Berthe Morisot. Morisot’s depictions of her daughter accentuate the modern nature of her work that led her to be one of only two female artists associated with the French Impressionist movement. Not allowed to leave her home unchaperoned (as was custom in 19th-c. Paris), Morisot often focused on domestic scenes of close family and friends. Yet it was this constraint that allowed her to explore her distinctively light and rapid technique and method of depicting her subjects. Morisot portrayed her female subjects as individuals, avoiding overly sexual scenes and guiding viewers to see these women as they wished to be viewed. Morisot broke barriers by becoming a professional artist at a time when women were expected to marry and tend to their family. Berthe Morisot was not just a ‘female artist’, her radical style transcended limitations of the modernist movement as a whole, proving just how far female expressive capabilities were able to extend.