Art Talk: The Mother and Sister of the Artist

Today's Art Talk post is a highlight of the great Impressionist painting The Mother and Sister of the Artist.

Berthe Morisot
The Mother and Sister of the Artist, 1869/1870

This painting was on one of my first tours of the National Gallery of Art in DC and ever since I heard the story I connected with the painting and go and see each time I go back to the gallery.

I love when I see a picture and know something about the artist or the backstory of the painting. It makes it so much more meaningful. So here is a show out for museum tours! They give you this awesome info and help you connect to pieces that you would have otherwise walked past.

Berthe Morisot a true Impressionist and showed in 7 of the 8 shows and the one she missed was during the birth of her daughter Julie. This painting was shown in both the Salon of 1870 and in the first Impressionist show in 1874.

The Story

This is picture of Berthe's sister Edna and her mother at home. It was painted in 1870 and Berthe was nervous about sending it to the Salon. She asked the great painter Edouard Manet for advice.

He not only gave advice he took his paint brush and with his favorite color black he painted.

An excerpt of letter from Berthe to her Sister Edna.
And if you want to hear the audio.

He found it very good expect for the lower part of the dress. He took the brushes put in a few accents that looked very well. Mother was in ecstasies. And that is where my misfortunes began. Once started nothing could stop him, from the skirt he went to the bust, from the bust he went to the head, from the head to background. He cracked a thousand jokes, laughed like a madman, handed me the pallet and took it back. Finally WE had made the prettiest caricature ever seen. The courtier was waiting to take it away to the Salon jury. He made me put it in the hand cart willy nilly. And now I am left confounded. But my only hope is that I shall be rejected. My mother thinks this episode funny. But I find it agonizing.

In the tour I went on I heard that Berthe said that she would rather be at the bottom for the sea than to have this shown at the Salon.

I adore this exchange with two great artists!

I also love going to see the painting and thinking of what happened.

Sources
National Gallery of Art, The Mother and Sister of the Artist
National Gallery of Art, The Mother and Sister of the Artist- audio
Berthe Morisot, Wikipedia