A young mother — Morisot's sister Edma — watches her sleeping infant through a fall of gauze, her cheek on her hand, lost in thought.
Why it matters
The first painting by a woman shown at the first Impressionist exhibition — and a subject, modern motherhood observed from inside, that male colleagues could not paint.
What to notice
The veil divides the canvas diagonally into the mother's world and the child's; Edma, herself a gifted painter who gave up art on marrying, gazes with unreadable feeling.
Context
Shown in 1874 beside Monet's 'Impression, Sunrise'; critics, unusually, treated Morisot gently — and bought nothing.
Themes
Maternity, watching, tenderness shadowed by ambivalence.
Legacy
Now among the Musée d'Orsay's most cherished works and the cornerstone of Morisot's restored reputation.
About the artist
Berthe Morisot (1841–1895). A founding member of the Impressionist group — she showed in seven of their eight exhibitions — Morisot painted the world open to a woman of her class with brushwork freer than any of her colleagues.
Impressionism (c. 1860–1890): Rejected by the official Salon, a group of friends carried their easels outdoors and painted light itself — railway steam, river sparkle, dancers under gaslight — in broken strokes of pure color. Their 1874 exhibition gave the movement its mocking, then triumphant, name.
Walk the Grand Gallery → See this painting hung in its wing, with music and guided tours, in the full virtual museum.