Impressionism, a historical reconstruction:

Berthe Morisot

(1841 – 1895)

large retrospective 1896

at Durand-Ruel

 

Introduction:
From 1896/03/05* – 21* a very large retrospective was held at Durand-Ruel called ‘Berthe Morisot (Madame Eugène Manet), 1841-1895, exposition de son oeuvre’. It was organised by Degas, Monet, Renoir, Mallarmé and her daughter Julie Manet, who described in her diary the works of her mother that were exhibited (R93,p81-95). It included (at least) 380 art-works, including 188 oil paintings, 69 watercolours, 64 drawings, 56 pastels and 3 sculptures (iR19).
These works were made throughout the years, so it renders a nice overview of the themes Berthe Morisot depicted. It also gives an inside in the development of her style, which you can compare with the impressionist painting style. I therefore will render the pictures by year they were made by Morisot (but firstly by medium and form).
On this page you will find several of the exhibited works (see for an account at the bottom of this page). If you double click on the first (of a cluster of) pictures and then click on full screen, you can create a slideshow. On a smartphone or laptop you can also zoom in. Enjoy!
Note*: Some wrongly render as starting date the 4th (R?); others wrongly that is stopped the 23rd (R186,p342).

 

Exhibited paintings:

 

 

 

Other art-works:

 

 

 

The catalogue:
The preface was written by Stéphane Mallarmé (p.5-16).
The catalogue indicates the following sort of works were exhibited:
tableaux (no.1-110)
paysages (no. 111-142)
marines (no. 143-157)
nature mortes (no. 158-174)
pastels (no. 175 – 228)
dessins (229 – 289)
aquarelles (290 – 357)
Here the catalogue writes etc. etc., so maybe more watercolours (and other works) were shown.
copies (358-360)
sculptures (361-363)
Additionally the catalogue renders 11 peintures, 2 pastels, 1 aquarelle, 3 dessins, so another 17 art-works, this makes a total of at least 363+17=380 art-works.
The total amount of oil paintings is 174 + 3 (copies) + 11 (peintures) =188.
Pastels: 54 + 2 = 56.
Aquarelles: 68 + 1 = 69
Drawings: 61 + 3 = 64.
Sculptures: 3.

 

Sources:
catalogue (PDF at archive.org = iR19);
The description of Julie Manet (R93,p81-95).
The identifications rendered in the catalogues raisonné of 1961 (=BW=R100) and 1997 (=CMR=R186).
Oter sources are: R398,p261+263;R5,p206;R42,p94.
See also the sources mentioned at the bottom of the main page on Berthe Morisot.
See links for practical hints and abbreviations and for the subscription of the paintings. See links for other general references (=R), internet sites (=iR) and musea (=M). For other additional references (=aR) see below.

 

Recommanded citation: “Impressionism: Berthe Morisot, retrospective 1896. Last modified 2025/05/10. ”