Manet & Morisot at the Legion of Honor Museum

Manet & Morisot are famous French Impressionists from the 19th century. From October 2025 to March 2026, an exhibition about the artistic exchange between the two painters will be displayed at the Legion of Honor Museum (in Lincoln Park, San Francisco). Unfolding over a period of 15 years (1868-1883), this exhibition traces the evolution of a friendship between the two. The story of their relationship has often been told through Manet’s early portraits of Morisot, with Morisot’s own work treated as an offshoot of Manet’s. Recent scholarship reveals that, by the final years of his life, Manet increasingly followed Morisot’s example : her choice of subjects and colors, and even her rapid, fluttering brushstrokes. 

What is the Impressionist movement ?

Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement, primarily French, focused on capturing light and color through loose, visible brushstrokes and ordinary subjects. It emphasized an accurate depiction of light and its changes, and included the movement of the subjects in the paintings. 
It started in Paris, reaching its peak in the 1870s and 1880s. This movement faced criticism from the conventional art community in France, because it “violated” the rules of academic painting. At the time, paintings were traditionally accomplished in studio, with an emphasis on hyperrealism. The Impressionists liked to paint outdoors, with raw, unblended colors, and short “broken” brushstrokes, to capture the momentary effects of sunlight.
Famous impressionists include Claude Monet, whose “Impression, Soleil levant” gave its name to the movement, but also Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Édouard Manet, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot… Some of these artists had their work exhibited at the “Salon des Refusés” (1863), which drew attention to this new tendency in art.

Who was Berthe Morisot ?

Berthe Morisot was born in 1841 in a Bourgeois family (upper middle class), and received private art lessons with her sisters growing up. She began exhibiting in her early twenties. She was one of the leading figures of the Impressionist movement, and the only woman of the group to exhibit under her own name.
She exhibited in seven of the eight official Impressionist shows between 1874 and 1886, more than most of her male peers. She was a core member of the Impressionist circle, with Monet, Renoir, Degas… She was married to Édouard Manet’s brother, Eugène, but met the famous painter first.
Long under-recognized because of her gender, Morisot is now celebrated as a pioneer of modern painting and a key figure in redefining how women were represented in art. Her works are housed in major museums worldwide, including the Musée d’Orsay, and here in San Francisco, at the Legion of Honor.

Who was Édouard Manet ?

Édouard Manet was born in 1832 in a wealthy Parisian family. Influenced by Spanish masters like Velázquez and Goya, he developed a bold and modern style that broke away from traditional artistic conventions.
Often considered the bridge between Realism and Impressionism, Manet was close to Monet, Degas, Renoir, and Morisot, though he never officially joined their group. His paintings depicted modern Parisian life : cafés, musicians, and everyday people… with loose brushwork, sharp contrasts, and an unidealized realism that challenged the norms of the time. 
His works Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (1863) and Olympia (1865) caused public scandal for their provocative subjects and direct gaze, but they became landmarks of modern art. Manet is now recognized as a revolutionary artist who redefined what modern painting could be.

How did these artists influence each other’s work ? 

Although Manet is often described as the father of Impressionism, he never actually joined the movement, unlike Berthe Morisot. She participated in the very first Impressionist group exhibition in 1874 and was the only woman to present her work under her own name in that bold, experimental show. Morisot became one of the group’s most devoted members, taking part in seven of the eight official Impressionist exhibitions between 1874 and 1886.
Manet painted Morisot at least ten times, including The Balcony (1868-1869) and Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets (1872), though many of these portraits remained in his studio until his death. Berthe Morisot with a Fan is thought to have been offered as a wedding gift when Morisot married Manet’s brother in 1874.
The two artists also collected one another’s work. Manet owned two of Morisot’s landscapes (The Harbor at Lorient, 1869, and Hide-and-Seek, 1873), while Morisot gradually built one of the most significant collections of Manet’s paintings, with more than two dozen works. Several of Manet’s pictures can even be seen hanging on the walls in Morisot’s late depictions of her home.
Although Morisot first modeled for Manet, the artistic influence later shifted in the opposite direction. Their friendship is often told through Manet’s early portraits of her, but toward the end of his life he increasingly drew inspiration from her art. Manet began borrowing specific motifs - and even entire compositional structures - directly from Morisot’s work.