The Muse of Edouard Manet by M. Clifford

The latter is considered one of Manet’s masterpieces, showcasing his fearless use of black (which was then being avoided by the Impressionists), even using black for the irises of the green-eyed Morisot. Instead, he painted her voyeuristically on a balcony (with Fanny Claus), reclining on bourgeois sofas, and intently gazing back as she does in “Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets” (1872). Manet painted Impressionist Berthe Morisot 11 times between 18 - more than his wife, or cherished model Victorine Meurent - but never as an artist.

Édouard Manet, “Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets” (1872), oil on canvas, 55.5 x 40.5 cm ( via Wikimedia, Musée d’Orsay, Paris) Berthe Morisot (1841–1895) While Suzanne was arguably his most convenient model, Édouard only painted five of portraits of her, and frequently turned his brush on some of the other women in his life. The two had a discrete relationship for over a decade before Édouard finally married Suzanne in 1863, after the death of his father. Shortly after, Suzanne gave birth to a son who was raised as her younger brother (in order to avoid explaining the identity of his father), but is generally considered to be Édouard Manet’s son, although he never publicly acknowledged his paternity. The pair met in the early 1850s when the Manet family hired her, a Dutch pianist, as a music tutor. “In her slightest words, one felt the deep love she had for her charming enfant terrible of a husband.” “There was something very special about Mme Manet: the gift of kindness, simplicity, candor of spirit an unruffled serenity,” recalled Giuseppe de Nittis, an Italian Impressionist painter, of his friend’s wife. 1865-1873), oil on canvas, 61 x 73 cm ( via Wikimedia, Musée d’Orsay, Paris) Suzanne Leenhoff Manet (1830–1906)

The Muse of Edouard Manet by M. Clifford