Editing Berthe Morisot (section)

== Early life ==
[[File:Berthe Morisot 006.jpg|thumb|250px|Berthe Morisot, ''Portrait de Mme Morisot et de sa fille Mme Pontillon ou La lecture'' (The Mother and Sister of the Artist – Marie-Joséphine & Edma) 1869/70]]

Morisot was born 14 January 1841,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Berthe Morisot {{!}} Biography, Art, Paintings, & Facts|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Berthe-Morisot|access-date=9 July 2021|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref> in [[Bourges]], France, into an affluent bourgeois family. Her father, Edmé Tiburce Morisot, was the [[prefect]] (senior administrator) of the [[Departments of France|department]] of [[Cher (département)|Cher]]. He also studied architecture at [[École des Beaux-Arts|École des Beaux Arts]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Berthe Morisot|last=Adler|first=Kathleen|publisher=Cornell University Press|year=1987|isbn=0801420539|location=Ithaca, New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/berthemorisot00adle/page/9 9]|url=https://archive.org/details/berthemorisot00adle/page/9}}</ref> Her mother, Marie-Joséphine-Cornélie Thomas, was the great-niece of [[Jean-Honoré Fragonard]], one of the most prolific [[Rococo]] painters of the [[ancien régime]].<ref>Higonnet, p. 5</ref> She had two older sisters, Yves (1838–1893) and [[Edma Morisot|Edma]] (1839–1921), plus a younger brother, Tiburce, born in 1848. The family moved to Paris in 1852, when Morisot was a child.

It was commonplace for daughters of bourgeois families to receive art education, so Berthe and her sisters Yves and Edma were taught privately by Geoffroy-Alphonse Chocarne and [[Joseph Guichard]]. Morisot and her sisters initially started taking lessons so that they could each make a drawing for their father for his birthday.<ref name=":0" /> In 1857 Guichard, who ran a school for girls in Rue des Moulins, introduced Berthe and Edma to the [[Louvre]] gallery where from 1858 they learned by copying paintings. The Morisots were not only forbidden to work at the museum unchaperoned, but they were also totally barred from formal training.<ref name="Harmon, Melissa Burdick 2001, p. 98">Harmon, Melissa Burdick. "Monet, Renoir, Degas...Morisot the Forgotten Genius of Impressionism." ''Biography'', vol. 5, no. 6, June 2001, p. 98. EBSCO''host''</ref> Guichard also introduced them to the works of [[Gavarni]].<ref name="Higonet" />

As art students, Berthe and Edma worked closely together until 1869, when Edma married Adolphe Pontillon, a naval officer, moved to [[Cherbourg-en-Cotentin|Cherbourg]], and had less time to paint. Letters between the sisters show a loving relationship, underscored by Berthe's regret at the distance between them and Edma's withdrawal from painting. Edma wholeheartedly supported Berthe's continued work and their families always remained close. Edma wrote ''"... I am often with you in thought, dear Berthe. I'm in your studio and I like to slip away, if only for a quarter of an hour, to breathe that atmosphere that we shared for many years..."''.<ref name="Met Museum"/><ref name="SSL87 16"/><ref name="Women in the Act of Painting">{{cite web| url = http://womenintheactofpainting.blogspot.fr/2012/11/edma-and-berthe.html| title = Women in the Act of Painting, 9 November 2012, Edma and Berthe by Nancy Bea Miller| date = 9 November 2012}}</ref>

Her sister Yves married Théodore Gobillard, a tax inspector, in 1866 and was painted by [[Edgar Degas]] as ''Madame Théodore Gobillard'' ([[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], New York City).<ref name="Met Museum">{{cite web| url = https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436149| title = Yves peinte par Degas}}</ref><ref name="SSL87 16">{{harvsp|Stuckey, Scott Lindsay|p=16|id=SSL87}}</ref><ref name="Higonnet">{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-ZrK2juMan0C&pg=PA32| title = ''Berthe Morisot'' by Anne Higonnet, Berthe Morisot, at Google Books. Page 32| isbn = 9780520201569| last1 = Higonnet| first1 = Anne| date = 8 June 1995| publisher = University of California Press}}</ref>

As a [[copyist]] at the Louvre, Morisot met and befriended other artists such as Manet and Monet.<ref name="Harmon, Melissa Burdick 2001, p. 98"/> In 1861 she was introduced to [[Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot]], the pivotal landscape painter of the [[Barbizon school]] who also excelled in figure painting. Under Corot's influence, she took up the [[plein air]] (outdoors) method of working.<ref>Garb, T.  (2003). "Morisot, Berthe(-Marie-Pauline)". Grove Art Online.</ref> By 1863 she was studying under {{ill|Achille Oudinot|fr}}, another Barbizon painter. In the winter of 1863–64 she studied sculpture under [[Aimé Millet]], but none of her sculptures is known to survive.<ref name="Higonet">{{cite book|last1=Higonnet|first1=Anne|title=Berthe Morisot|date=1990|publisher=Harper & Row, Publishers|location=New York|isbn=0-06-016232-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/berthemorisot00higo/page/11 11–25]|url=https://archive.org/details/berthemorisot00higo/page/11}}</ref>