Description
Édouard Manet represented his close friend artist Berthe Morisot twelve times between 1868 and 1874 in etching, lithography, oil paint, and watercolor. In this watercolor Manet used a limited palette and a combination of techniques to depict Morisot against a blue-green background. He worked wet-into-wet for her dress, applying wet pigment onto an already wet surface before it had time to dry, which allowed the marks to bleed and blend into one another. Then Manet used a dry-brush technique to emphasize the texture of the fabric of her dress and the ribbon in her hair. Both these textures contrast with the relative flatness of the muted background, making the sitter stand out.
Provenance
Possibly Jean-Baptiste Faure (1830–1914), Paris, probably after 1902, but by Sept. 1906. Paul Cassirer (1871–1926), Berlin, by 1910 [according to New York, 1983 exh. cat.]; given to his wife Tilla Durieux-Cassirer (née Ottilie Godefroy; 1880–1971), Berlin, by 1922 [Walter Feilchenfeldt, May 30, 2001, in curatorial object file; and Édouard Manet, 1922]; returned to the Cassirer family, 1926 [Tilla Durieux, Meine ersten neunzig Jahre (Herbig, 1971]; placed on consignment by Paul Cassirer’s daughter, Suzanne Aimée Bernfeld (née Cassirer; 1896–1963), to Walter Feilchenfeldt (1894–1953) of Paul Cassirer, Amsterdam, Mar. 1935; sold to Margarete Oppenheim (1857–1935), Berlin, June 1935 [Walter Feilchenfeldt, June 9, 2003, in curatorial object file]; by descent to her stepdaughter, Martha Oppenheim–von Simson (1882–1971), Berlin [Vita Petersen, telephone conversation with Suzanne Folds McCullagh, June 28, 2001]; to her daughter, Vita Petersen (née von Simson; 1915–2011), New York, by 1937 [Vita Petersen, telephone conversation with Suzanne Folds McCullagh, June 28, 2001]; to Justin K. Thannhauser (1892–1976), New York [Thannhauser stock card no. 2874; and Janet Briner, Silva-Casa Foundation, to the Art Institute of Chicago, June 10, 2001, in curatorial object file]; sold to the Art Institute, 1963.
Accession Number
18667
Medium
Watercolor over traces of graphite on cream wove paper
Dimensions
20.9 × 16.8 cm (8 1/4 × 6 5/8 in.)
Classification
watercolor
Credit Line
Helen Regenstein Collection
Background & Context
Background Story
This 1874 watercolor portrait of Berthe Morisot is one of the most intimate documents of the Impressionist circle, capturing the young painter at a moment when she was establishing herself as a major artist while maintaining a complex friendship with Manet that blurred the boundaries between mentorship, rivalry, and unacknowledged desire. The image shows Morisot in three-quarter profile, holding a fan that partially conceals her face, a compositional device that suggests both coquetry and self-protection. The fan itself was a fashionable accessory of the period, but it also carries art-historical weight: in Japanese prints and European genre painting, the fan often symbolized the woman's social performance, the mask she presents to the world. Manet's watercolor technique is extraordinarily delicate: transparent washes allow the cream wove paper to shine through, creating a luminosity that suggests both the sitter's fairness and the fragility of the medium. The quick, searching lines of the graphite underdrawing are visible in places, revealing the artist's working process and the urgency of his observation. This portrait belongs to the same year as the first Impressionist exhibition, in which Morisot participated and Manet did not; the watercolor thus documents their shared world while marking their divergent paths. Art historians have compared this image to Manet's more famous painted portrait of Morisot, noting that the watercolor's informality captures a side of her personality that the oil suppresses. The work also influenced the watercolor practices of Morisot herself, who would adopt a similarly fluid, atmospheric approach in her own studies of women and domestic life.
Cultural Impact
This delicate watercolor captured Impressionist intimacy and rivalry, using transparent wash and visible graphite to document Morisot's complex identity while influencing her own atmospheric technique.
Why It Matters
It matters because Manet drew a woman who was his equal and hid her face behind a fan—proving that the closest friendships could still keep secrets.
