[By Berthe Morisot – https://collections.artsmia.org/index.php?page=detail&id=10444, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44191722%5D
One of the paintings of Berthe Morisot, a French impressionist. I was inspired to read more about her after seeing a programme on TV [in French, with subtitles].
The documentary focused on her relationship with the painter Edouard Manet–she later married his brother. Living in Paris, she seemed an independent woman, unmarried at the age of 33, exhibiting her paintings, and making a name for herself. She was associated with Monet and other impressionists–the attitude towards their new style was not favourable at the time.
And the historical background includes the Prussian invasion of Paris.
Adding a brief extract from wikipedia, below:
“Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot (French: [mɔʁizo]; January 14, 1841 – March 2, 1895) was a painter and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists. She was described by Gustave Geffroy in 1894 as one of “les trois grandes dames” of Impressionism alongside Marie Bracquemond and Mary Cassatt.
In 1864, she exhibited for the first time in the highly esteemed Salon de Paris. Sponsored by the government, and judged by Academicians, the Salon was the official, annual exhibition of the Académie des beaux-arts in Paris. Her work was selected for exhibition in six subsequent Salons[2] until, in 1874, she joined the “rejected” Impressionists in the first of their own exhibitions, which included Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley. It was held at the studio of the photographer Nadar.
She was married to Eugène Manet, the brother of her friend and colleague Édouard Manet.”
Roshen Dalal 