Story & photos of paintings by Stephanie Levin
Feature image: The Harbor at Lorient (1869) by Berthe Morisot .
They met at the Musée du Louvre: he, a brilliant studio painter in his thirties; she, a trained landscape painter in her twenties. His paintings required extensive revision; her paintings were swift and decisive. He was all charm and wit, famous and infamous; she, discreet and elegant, chaperoned by her mother. Both were born into an elevated social class. He was worldly in a manner that his social strata permitted; she was admired for her reserve and for having the virtue of a nineteenth-century bourgeois woman. Édouard Manet (1832-1883) and Berthe Morisot (1841-1895), both members of the Impressionist circle, had a close friendship that lasted fifteen years. One of the most thought-provoking exhibits, recounting the Impressionist movement through the paintings of Manet and Morisot, now graces The Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, California, through March 2026.
Through the two artists’ paintings, styles, mannerisms, and differences, the exhibit is a journey through Manet’s and Morisot’s challenges and successes, their competitive and collaborative nature during the Impressionists’ struggle for acceptance. Their story is written in their paintings, which are displayed side by side in the exhibition.
United in their rejection of the conservative art form, Manet and Morisot shared a desire to create new art, yet diverged in where they exhibited their work and in how they painted. Manet, though considered a semi-Impressionist, showed annually at the prestigious Parisian Salon, where several of his paintings scandalized the Parisian upper crust. Morisot’s first painting to enter the Salon was ridiculed, and she quickly realized that her heart was with the struggling Impressionists Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, and Alfred Sisley. She was invited into the Impressionist group against Manet’s advice, and though he never displayed his paintings at the Impressionist exhibitions, he supported Morisot and the Impressionist painters. Throughout his life, Manet exhibited his paintings at the coveted Salon, which was considered the only place an artist of merit and talent exhibited. It was the hub that art collectors and gallery owners frequented to purchase art. Art critics also roamed the Salon, eager to praise or pan a painting. A searing critique of a painting doomed both the painting and the artist. Numerous impressionists and their paintings were thwarted by art critics.
Today, visitors perusing Parisian museums lined with world-class art of every genre find it hard to imagine the ridicule that the Impressionists endured. Critics panned plein air painting with its dappled light, blended brush strokes, and poorly defined ephemeral scenes, a juxtaposition of art forms in old masters’ paintings that the Impressionist rebelled against.
There is a myth that painters usually work in solace and silence, but the Impressionists worked and painted together, many gathering in Manet’s studio. Often, Manet and Morisot shared ideas, and in the beginning of her career, Morisot looked to Manet for inspiration and approval. However, as one walks through the Legion of Honor exhibit, it is apparent that Morisot influenced Manet’s painting style, particularly in his later years. The exhibit opens with what is considered one of Manet’s most exquisite paintings, Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets (1872). Every stroke merges the painter and the subject from the likeness of Morisot’s gaze to her untidy curls framing her face. Most unusual for Manet is that he painted this portrait in one or two sittings, a rarity for the artist who constantly revised.
Awed viewers stand in front of the largest painting in the first room, The Balcony by Manet (1868-1869). Morisot is seated on the balcony, her arm resting on the rail. Two other companions appear in the painting, yet the eye moves to the poised Morisot. The scene imagines the three peering down at the privileged passing below the balcony. Manet entered The Balcony in the 1869 Salon to clamorous criticism that the “narrative was incoherent and likened Manet’s brushstrokes to that of a house painter.”
Shortly after Manet painted The Balcony, Morisot painted Young Woman at Her Window (1869). There is conjecture that the painting is a response to The Balcony. Like Morisot in Manet’s The Balcony, the young woman Morisot painted is draped in a flowing white dress, fan in hand, but she assumes the opposite vantage point seeing the world from inside the apartment window rather than the exterior balcony. Upon viewing the painting, Manet felt it a masterpiece and encouraged Morisot to show it at the 1870 Salon, where it hung in perfect sight, and attracted zero attention.
As a result of their collaboration, deep friendship and sensitivity to each other’s work, Morisot presented Manet with the painting The Harbor at Lorient (1869), (the Feature Image, above), it being a painting of her sister, Edma, seated on a seawall at the harbor with a parasol in hand. The brushstrokes of the pink cloudy sky reflecting on the harbor defines Morisot’s understanding of light, much in the way a photographer would understand it today.
In 1873, Manet painted Berthe Morisot Reclining, capturing her penetrating gaze, her crown of curls swept back from her face set off by a velvet black choker. Manet painted Morisot in his studio as she reclined on a sofa. The original painting apparently was full length, but perhaps due to some of the earlier criticism of his past paintings as well as the pose, which was typically reserved for actresses or courtesans, Manet cut the canvas down before sending it home with Morisot as a gift. Even though not in its original dimension, there is an intimacy between the painter and the model one senses when studying the painting.
In the second room with a cerulean painted wall as a backdrop I found two serene paintings, Manet’s On the Beach at Boulogne-sur-Mer (1869), above, and Morisot’s On the Beach at Petites-Dalles or Fécamp (1873), below. At first glance, the paintings appear similar: the sea, boats and sand, the latter dotted with people. Both are a study in plein air, observing nature, and the social status of individuals sunning on the sand. A closer observation of the two artists styles shows their differences. According to the caption for the paintings, Manet designed his seaside scene from a sketchbook drawing. In his original sketch, the characters on the beach were precise and defined. For his painting, he applied paint heavily to his canvas to create a sleeker less defined painting. In contrast, Morisot’s painting has sailboats dotting the water under a gauzy sky; her beachcombers have a windblown, feathery appearance. Her brushstrokes are light and tender, so that I could almost feel the salt air blowing across the beautiful beach scene. Her critics took note and remarked that it was likely painted quickly. Though the style of paintings was vastly different, the connection and link of ideas and design between Manet and Morisot is clear.
Manet painted The Railway in 1873 showing an unusual, Morisot-inspired, lightness to his style. The steam in the painting created a plein-air effect, showing a growing interest for Manet in techniques which were already a feature of Morisot’s paintings, who also included the subject of women and children in her work. I admired The Railway composition for its boldness, as well as its venture into impressionist brushstrokes tempered with a familial scene of the child gazing at the hazy steam billowing in the background. The steam merged with the creamy white of the child’s dress, and though the viewer doesn’t see the child’s face, her coiffed hair and her stylish dress suggests a girl with means and money. Unlike the child, her mother faces the viewer, and Manet painted the seated woman gazing askance, her puppy and a book resting in her lap.
Manet entered The Railway in the 1874 Salon, and to my surprise, it was ridiculed and disparaged by the critics. It seems to me that artists who experiment with new techniques or dabbled in unconventional themes were at the time subject to the vitriol from both the critics and the French public.
In contrasting styles, Manet was a master at capturing the open gaze of his subjects, while Morisot filtered her subject’s emotions, as seen in a painting of her sister Edma with eyes downcast, reading a book. In fact, Edma’s eyes barely appear in the painting. It is her flowing white dress, dotted in flowers against a peach-colored blanket and verdant backdrop that gives the painting an ethereal sense.
Two of my favorite paintings, if one can choose a favorite, have nautical themes, Berthe Morisot’s Lake in the Bois de Boulogne (1879) and Édouard Manet’s Boating, (1874-76). The converging themes again suggest the strong alliance between the two artists. Morisot’s painting glimmers with reflections as light dances across the water, across the painting, and simultaneously reflecting on the women’s dresses. Morisot boldly replaced the dominant male boatsman of the Manet painting with a female figure. The entire painting shows her mastery of light and how it reflects and moves on different surfaces.
Manet’s painting is equally enticing but painted differently. The solid, strong figure of the boatman guides the boat with a tiller, and one experiences Manet’s strong forms. However, the boatsman’s female companion appears less dominant, though Manet painted her striped dress with finer brushstrokes that also reflect upon the water, perhaps influenced by Morisot’s lighter, impressionist brushstrokes.
In 1877, Manet painted Before the Mirror. Morisot’s influence is evident and it’s an abrupt fissure from Manet’s earlier work. The model contemplates herself before the mirror, her back to the viewer, her gown eased off her bare shoulders. Manet’s brushstrokes are lighter, undefined as seen in the pleats of the model’s dress as well as the painting’s background–the blurred, beveled-edge mirror and the wallpaper. The painting has a gentle, sensual overtone to it.
Juxtaposed in the exhibit hangs Morisot’s Woman at her Toilette (1879-1880). Morisot showed this painting in the fifth Impressionist exhibition on April 1, 1880. Her model is seated before a mirror, pinning her hair but her image is not reflected in the mirror. The beautiful white brushstrokes blend the model’s dress with the backdrop of the wall as only Morisot could. Even though the dress exposes a shoulder and upper back, the painting has no erotic or sensual suggestion. Morisot’s model sits as any woman of that time fussing with her hair. Manet’s model stands, admiring herself, yet neither painting shows a clear reflection of either model’s face or image, leaving it to the viewer’s imagination. What is indisputable is Morisot’s influence in Manet’s painting. According to the curators of the exhibit, one week after Morisot showed her painting at the Impressionist exhibition, Manet mounted a solo exhibition in a commercial gallery with his painting.
In the final room of the exhibit I found two paintings of Julie, Morisot’s four-year-old daughter. Morisot married Eugene Manet, Édouard’s brother, and Julie was close to both her father and uncle. At the time of the painting Julie Manet with a Watering Can (1882), Manet was already ill and painted this picture in an afternoon, but never was able to finish it. I stood close to the painting and noticed the dappled light playing around Julie’s face.
Next to Manet’s painting is Morisot’s Playing in the Sand (1882) which is a beautiful, serene impressionist painting of Julie making mud pies in the sand. Morisot’s family vacationed at Bougival for the summer while Manet’s family rented a house in Ruell, a few miles away. Both artists painted Julie during the same summer.
As viewers spend time studying the paintings throughout the four rooms, I could clearly understand Manet’s transition from Realism to Impressionism.
Manet died from complications from syphilis in 1883 at the age 51 leaving a large body of work. Morisot mourned his passing and lived and painted for another 12 years before she passed away at age 54 from pneumonia, acquired caring for her daughter who was recovering from pneumonia. She too left an enormous collection of impressionist paintings, defining herself as a brilliant creative artist capable of carving her own way in the male-dominated 1800s artistic world.
There is a final self-portrait of Morisot at the exit of the exhibit, freely brushed, boasting vigor, confidence and a resolute expression. It’s a different view of the artist in midlife as she entered the portrait in the exhibition of contemporary portraits in 1893, two years before her death. Morisot, whose gaze was painted so eloquently by Manet, ultimately painted her last canvas, a self-portrait, sharing her gaze.
IF YOU GO: Legion of Honor Museum: https://www.famsf.org
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