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"An oil painting, of a young mother playing hide-and-seek behind a cherry tree with her little girl, is a work that is
perfect in the emotion of its observation, the freshness of its palette, and the composition of its background."
[Philippe Burty], La Republique Francaise, 25 April 1874
"Berthe Morisot has wit to the tips of her fingers, especially at her fingertips. What fine artistic feeling! You
cannot find more graceful images handled more deliberately and delicately than Berceau and Cache-cache.
I would add that here the execution is in complete accord with the idea to be expressed."
[Jules-Antoine] Castagnary, Le Siecle, 29 April 1874
La lecture, Reading
(The Mother and Sister of the Artist)
1869-1870, Oil on canvas. 101 x 81.8 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Now known as The Mother and Sister of the Artist
"Now take Mlle Morisot! That young lady is not interested in reproducing trifling details. When she has a hand to paint,
she makes exactly as many brushstrokes lengthwise as there are fingers, and the business is done. Stupid people who are
finicky about the drawing of a hand don't understand a thing about Impressionism, and great Manet would chase them out of
his republic."
Louis Leroy, Le Charivari, 25 April 1874
"Berthe Morisot had submitted to the jury...a double portrait of her mother and her sister which had caused her a
great deal of anxiety. Puvis de Chavannes having criticized the head of Mme Morisot, the artist retouched it and then
asked Puvis to come and judge it again; but the latter had excused himself. "Until then my worries weren't too bad", she
wrote a few days later to her sister. "Tired, nervous, I go to see Manet in his studio. He asks me how things are and -
perceiving my indecision - says in high spirits: 'Tomorrow, after my shipment [to the Salon], I shall come to see your
picture, and believe you me, I shall tell you what ought to be done.' The next day he arrives around one o'clock, says
that everything is fine, except for the lower part of the dress. He takes some brushes, puts in a few accents - mother is
enraptured. But here my troubles begin: once he has started, nothing can keep him back; from the skirt he proceeds to the
bodice, from the bodice to the head, from the head to the background. He is full of a thousand jests, laughs like a
child, hands me the palette, takes it back... at last, by five in the afternoon, we had produced the prettiest little
caricature that can be seen. They were waiting to take it away; he makes me put it willy-nilly on the pushcart and I
remain behind, completely confounded. My only hope is that it will be rejected. Mother considers the whole adventure
funny, though I find it rather distressing."
Rewald, "The History of Impressionism"
Le berceau (The Cradle)
1872, Oil on canvas 22 x 18 in.
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
"Morisot sometimes leaves the fields and shores, and nothing is both more true and tender than the young mother -
admittedly rather badly dressed - who leans over the cradle where a rosy child falls asleep, just visible through the
pale cloud of muslin."
Jean Prouvaire [Pierre Toloza], Le Rappel, 20 April 1874
Madame Albine Sermicoli in the Studio
Oil on canvas. 60 x 73 cm. Berthe Morisot. Painted in 1889
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