The Drawing Lesson (Berthe Morisot and her Daughter)
Medium
Drypoint on wove paper
Dimensions
sheet: 14 1/16 x 10 15/16 in. (35.7 x 27.8 cm) plate: 7 1/2 x 5 1/2 in. (19 x 13.9 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Rogers Fund and Jacob H. Schiff Bequest, 1922
Accession Number
22.60.93
Tags
Art Historical Context
In 1889, Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot created *The Drawing Lesson (Bert Morisot and her Daughter)*, a tender drypoint print capturing an intimate moment between the artist and her young daughter, Julie Manet. Seated side by side, mother and child share a drawing lesson, their faces illuminated with focus and affection. This double portrait, listed under both names, reflects Morisot dual role as pioneering artist and devoted parent, blending self-portraiture with domestic life—a rarity in 19th-century art dominated by male perspectives. Executed in drypoint on wove paper, the work show...
About the Artist
Berthe Morisot|Julie Manet · 1841–1895
Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) was a founding member of the Impressionist movement and one of the most significant women artists of the 19th century. Born into an affluent bourgeois family in Bourges, France—her mother was a great-niece of the Rococo painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard—Morisot received serious artistic training despite the social constraints facing women of her class. Under the guidance of...