Portrait of Berthe Morisot with a Fan
1874
Medium
Watercolor over traces of graphite on cream wove paper
Dimensions
20.9 × 16.8 cm (8 1/4 × 6 5/8 in.)
Classification
watercolor
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
18667
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Édouard Manet represented his close friend artist Berthe Morisot twelve times between 1868 and 1874 in etching, lithography, oil paint, and watercolor. In this watercolor Manet used a limited palette and a combination of techniques to depict Morisot against a blue-green background. He worked wet-into-wet for her dress, applying wet pigment onto an already wet surface before it had time to dry, which allowed the marks to bleed and blend into one another. Then Manet used a dry-brush technique to e...