Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets by Manet in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2023

Title: Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets

Artist: Edouard Manet (French, Paris 1832–1883 Paris)

Date: 1872

Geography: Country of Origin France

Culture: French

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 21 7/8 × 15 15/16 in. (55.5 × 40.5 cm)
Framed: 28 1/8 × 22 5/8 in. (71.5 × 57.5 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Musée d'Orsay, Paris (RF 1998 30)


Among the eleven portraits in oil that Manet made of Morisot, this work is distinctive for the arresting gaze of the sitter, who is framed in a virtuosic composition of blacks. The striking beribboned hat and scarf signal her status as a fashionable Parisian, and the bouquet of violets clutched to her chest, a token of affection, hints at a flirtation. The journalist and critic Théodore Duret originally acquired the painting. Morisot purchased it when it came up for sale in 1894, the year before she died.


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/845066