Young Woman Seated on a Sofa by Morisot in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 2008

Young Woman Seated on a Sofa, ca. 1879
Berthe Morisot (French, 1841–1895)
Oil on canvas
31 3/4 x 39 1/4 in. (80.6 x 99.7 cm)
Signed (lower left): Berthe Morisot
Partial and Promised Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Dillon, 1992 (1992.103.2)

Born to a French upper-middle-class family, Berthe Morisot diverged from societal norms when she established herself as a professional artist. She exhibited at the official Salons and in seven of the eight Impressionist exhibitions. Morisot was at her apogee when she painted this model in her Paris apartment. By then she had melded the bravura brushwork adopted from her mentor and brother-in-law, Édouard Manet, with her own opalescent palette.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1992.103.2