EDOUARD MANET

(1832-1883)

Berthe Morisot was the wife of Manet’s younger brother, Eugène, and an accomplished artist with whom Manet had a close friendship.  This print is one of many images in which he used Morisot as a model.  As with many of his other prints, this portrait is one of three that were based on a painting of Morisot in a black mourning dress with violets, of 1872.  Each print was intended to reflect a different aspect of the original painting.    While the etched version (G.79, Fisher 57) depicts Morisot as anxious and dishevelled, the lithograph interprets the tonal values of the oil in the painted impression and was probably based on a reversed photograph.  The immediacy of this drawing medium lends the image a fluid quality that suggests Manet used a soft, oily crayon.  Manet also produced a lithograph of Morisot in outline (cat.no.74, Harris, 1990).

Manet rarely dated his prints, but this lithograph is believed to have been produced at around the time of the painting, presumably as another means of publicity.

Copyright © Trustees of Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford.

Extract taken from Prints, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery .