BERTHE MORISOT French, 1841 –1895 Seated Nude Seen from Behind, circa 1889 Black and white drypoint depicting the back of a seated nude figure, with face turned towards the viewer. Artwork was first etched in 1889; printed and published by Ambroise Vollard. Framed. Not examined out of frame. Sight: 5.5 x 3.75 inches; frame: 15.5 x 13.5 inches $500-700
ARTIST PROFILE: Berthe Morisot was a cornerstone of the French Impressionist movement and one of its most innovative practitioners. Born into an affluent bourgeois family in Bourges, she received private artistic training alongside her sister Edma and studied under the Barbizon master Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. In 1868, she met Édouard Manet, developing a deep professional and personal bond; she frequently posed for him (most famously in The Balcony) and later married his brother, Eugène Manet. Morisot was a founding member of the "Société Anonyme des Artistes-Peintres" and was the only woman to exhibit in the first landmark Impressionist exhibition of 1874. Her work is celebrated for its ethereal, "unfinished" quality, utilizing loose, flickering brushstrokes and a luminous palette to capture the domestic lives of women, sensitive portraits of children, and vibrant landscapes. Despite being labeled with gendered terms like "delicate" by 19th-century critics, she was a radical who pushed the boundaries of representation, eventually being recognized as one of "les trois grandes dames" of Impressionism alongside Mary Cassatt and Marie Bracquemond.
