Manet & Morisot, Part 3 --- Day 14/310

Walk: Legion of Honor

Distance: 3.5 miles

Wherever works by Edouard Manet and Berthe Morisot are hanging in the same gallery, you can be quite sure someone is thinking "Were they having an affair?"

Edouard Manet (1832-1883), The Balcony, 1868-1896, o/c

Edouard Manet, Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets, 1872, o/c

So, Ciwt is curious if her readers have any thoughts about how the artist of the two painting above felt about his subject - and she about him.  

Manet painted her and Morisot sat for him for 11-12 works in various mediums from 1868 to 1874 when she married his brother.  During those years and beyond he mentored her early artistic development and gradually became influenced stylistically by her as she perfected her skills and became a renowned leader in the Impressionist movement. 

Money was not the reason for their artist-model relationship. Manet was firmly ensconced in the Parisian upper class and Morisot was only slightly below him socially. So he could afford to pay any number of models and did.  Morisot did not need the modeling income.

Morisot properly stopped modeling for Edouard after she became the wife of his brother Eugene. But their time together did not stop. She and Edouard continued a prolonged, intense artistic collaboration in which they were strongly influenced by each other's works until Manet's death in 1883 at which time Morisot and her husband became Manet's biggest collectors and champions.  

From Impressionist times until today it has been widely believed Manet and Morisot had an intense and passionate love affair. Morisot's letters to her sister describe feelings of strong and sad longings for the attractive, charming Manet.  And his bedazzlement with her is beautifully recorded on canvas. But art historians argue otherwise. Manet was married, Morisot was known for her social propriety, Morisot's mother or sister was in the studio during all her sittings for Manet.  So, certainly there was prolonged and close intimacy over many years, but (so far) there is no evidence that the relationship went further.  Sigh....

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