Grattis Berthe!

Berthe Morisot
14 januari 1841 – 2 mars 1895

målat av hennes svåger

Édouard Manet

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Ännu en konstnär som inte togs riktigt på allvar — därför att hon var kvinna. I sin anteckningsbok skrev hon "Jag tror inte att någon man någonsin skulle behandla en kvinna som sin jämlike, men det är allt jag begär, för jag vet mitt eget värde."

En konstkritiker sade en gång om henne: "Hon är exceptionell Det är synd att hon inte är en man."
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Young Girl with Cat (Julie Manet), 1889

Lady at her Toilette, 1972
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Critics on Morisot

I think one of the best works is the woman at her dressing table, seen from behind, whose ambered white skin is seen against a background almost as light.
Armand Silvestre, La Vie Moderne, 24 April 1880

The same impossibilities, the same seduction [exist] in the Femme a sa Toilette. She is an ashblonde with a lost profile. The entirety is in gray tones spotted here and there with touches of pale pink.
Paul Mantz, Le Temps, 14 April 1880

Berthe Morisot is French in her distinction, elegance, gaiety and nonchalance. She loves painting that is joyous and lively. She grinds flower petals onto her palette, in order to spread them later on her canvas with airy, witty touches, thrown down a little haphazardly. These harmonize, blend, and finish by producing something vital, fine, and charming that you do not see so much as intuit. . . . Here are some young women rocking in a boat on choppy water; there are some picking flowers; this one walks through a winter landscape; that one is at her dressing table. All are seen through fine gray tones, matte white, and light pink, with no shadows, set off with little multi-colored daubs, the whole giving the impression of vague and undecided opaline tints.
Charles Ephrussi, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1 May 1880