Berthe Morisot Et L'art Du Xviiie Siècle

Exhibition at the Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris, 18 October 2023 - 3 March 2024

A virtuoso painter, pastellist and watercolourist who remained in the shadow of her male colleagues until recently, Berthe Morisot (1841-1845) is today regarded as a key figure in the new painting of the second half of the 19th century, and Impressionism in particular. Since 1880, her art has been associated with the elegance and grace of the eighteenth century, with the paintings of François Boucher and Jean-Honoré Fragonard, and with the pastels of Jean-Baptiste Perronneau and Maurice Quentin Delatour.

In this exhibition catalogue, sixty-five works from French and foreign museums and private collections are brought together for the first time to highlight the links between Berthe Morisot's work and the art of Watteau, Boucher, Fragonard and Perronneau.

Based on an analysis of mainly unpublished sources (correspondence, notebooks of Berthe Morisot and her husband Eugène Manet and their entourage, press cuttings) and on an in-depth genealogical study, the book sheds new light on a subject often mentioned by historians without having been the subject of dedicated and exhaustive research, and highlights the true foundations of these artistic affinities.