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Portrait of Berthe Morisot

Sitter Berthe Morisot French
ca. 1876
Not on view
This print depicts the Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot leaning forward in an armchair, gazing intensely out to the viewer and grasping her fan with both hands. Her dress, hair, and famously dark eyes contrast with the barely delineated uchiwa fan and armchair. Desboutin achieved this range of tones in his preferred medium, drypoint, a technique in which the artist scratches the copperplate directly with a needle. Desboutin and Morisot both participated in the second Impressionist exhibition of 1876, though they almost certainly met earlier through mutual friends Manet and Degas. Morisot holds fans in numerous portraits by Manet and received one of Degas’s early fan designs as a gift from the artist. She also tried her hand at painting fans.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Portrait of Berthe Morisot
  • Artist: Marcellin Desboutin (French, Cérilly 1823–1902 Nice)
  • Sitter: Berthe Morisot (French, Bourges 1841–1895 Paris)
  • Date: ca. 1876
  • Medium: Drypoint; second state of two
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 18 7/8 × 13 1/4 in. (48 × 33.7 cm)
    Plate: 10 7/16 in. × 7 in. (26.5 × 17.8 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1922
  • Object Number: 22.63.176
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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Ceramic Horn, Glazed pottery, French
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[Abandoned House], Walker Evans American, Instant internal dye diffusion transfer print (Polaroid SX-70)
[Abandoned House]
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Portrait of Charles Hayem, Marcellin Desboutin French, Drypoint; first state of three
Portrait of Charles Hayem
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Sitter Charles Hayem
Dedicatee Edgar Degas
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Osage Warrior, Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin French, Watercolor and graphite on off-white wove paper, American
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