Young Girl with a Cat

Art Historical Context

Berthe Morisot's *Young Girl with a Cat* (1889) captures an intimate moment of childhood innocence, a recurring theme in the French artist's oeuvre. As a pioneering Impressionist—one of the few women in the movement alongside her sister Edma and peers like Monet and Renoir—Morisot often depicted women and children in soft, everyday light. Created late in her career, just four years before her death, this small-scale drypoint reflects her shift toward experimental printmaking, blending her signature loose, evocative style with the medium's tactile immediacy. Drypoint, a direct intaglio technique, involves scratching lines into a copper plate with a sharp tool, producing a velvety burr that yields rich, textured blacks on cream laid paper. Unlike etched lines, drypoint's organic softness mirrors Impressionism's emphasis on fleeting impressions and atmosphere. At just 13.8 × 10.7 cm, the image invites close viewing, revealing Morisot's masterful economy—subtle modeling of the girl's face and the cat's fur through minimal lines. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints and Drawings department, this rare print showcases Morisot's versatility beyond oils, highlighting her role in expanding women's presence in avant-garde art. A charming gem for visitors, it evokes the quiet poetry of domestic life.

About the Artist

Berthe Morisot · 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...