Musée d’Orsay · 1872
Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets
Édouard Manet
Manet painted his friend and fellow painter Berthe Morisot — dressed in black, her dark eyes fixed intently on the viewer — in what's considered one of the most striking and psychologically direct of the roughly dozen portraits he made of her.
Why it matters
Manet painted his friend and fellow painter Berthe Morisot — dressed in black, her dark eyes fixed intently on the viewer — in what's considered one of the most striking and psychologically direct of the roughly dozen portraits he made of her.
Look closer
Look at her eyes — dark, wide, and looking straight out at you — Manet gives almost no attention to finishing detail elsewhere in the painting, so her gaze carries the entire portrait.
Morisot went on to become one of the founding members of the Impressionist group and, a few years after this was painted, married Manet's younger brother Eugène — tying the two painters' families together for good.
Value context
ELYIO places this work in an indicative editorial context of €15–28 million.
The museum work is not for sale. This is ELYIO indicative context—not an appraisal, insurance value or offer.