Tom Ross
Art Appreciation
18 April 2012
Berthe Morisot Berthe Morisot was Born January 14, 1841, in Bourges, France. Berthe Morisot 's father was a high-ranking government official and her grandfather was the influential Rococo painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard. She and her sister Edma began painting as young girls. Despite the fact that as women they were not allowed to join official arts institutions, the sisters earned respect in art circles for their talent. She was born into a family that, according to family tradition, had included one of the most prolific Rococo painters of the ancien régime, Fragonard, whose handling of color and expressive, confident brushwork influenced later painters. By age twenty, she had …show more content…
Her paintings reflect the 19th-century cultural restrictions of her class and gender. She avoided urban and street scenes as well as the nude figure and, like her fellow female Impressionist Mary Cassatt, focused on domestic life and portraits in which she could use family and personal friends as models. Paintings like The Cradle 1872, in which she depicted current trends for nursery furniture, reflect her sensitivity to fashion and advertising, both of which would have been apparent to her female audience. Her works also include landscapes, portraits, garden settings and boating scenes. (Wikipedia) Manet and Morisot both became major players in the Impressionist movement as well as the establishment of the Salon de Refuses. She and Camille Pissarro were the most consistent exhibitors at the Impressionist exhibitions. Morisot was thought to have a played major role in the organization of these events and the keeping the temperamental artists working together for the advancement of the Impressionist movement. Her friends and fellow artists included Manet, Degas, Gauguin, Alfred Sisley and