The Cradle, Berthe Morisot: Analysis

In 1874 she married Eugene Manet, the painter's brother, but continued to paint, for in the same year she agreed, despite her success in the official Salons, to take part in the first of the Impressionist exhibitions, which was held at the house of Nadar, the photographer. She remained faithful to the group and took part in almost all their exhibitions.

In 1874 she exhibited The Cradle. It depicts one of her sisters, Edma, watching over her sleeping daughter, Blanche. It is the first painting of motherhood to appear in Morisot's work, although the theme would later become one of her favourite subjects.

Edma's gaze, her bent left arm, a replication of the child's arm, and the baby's closed eyes form a diagonal which links the mother to her child. The net curtain of the cradle lying between the viewer and the baby, further enhances the sense of intimacy and maternal love expressed in the picture.

Edma, Madame Pontillon, who like herself had begun a career as a painter and had had the same masters as Berthe. But her marriage in 1869 to a naval officer stationed at Lorient, prevented her from continuing her interest in art. Berthe was very fond of her sister and painted her several times. The Musee d'Orsay possesses a portrait of Edma done in pastel, and a Butterfly Hunt which shows the young woman playing with her children in an orchard.

Berthe Morisot brought to the Impressionist group a touch of sentiment which goes back to the oldest traditions of French art. The restrained emotion of the mother contemplating her child recalls fifteenth-century Nativities (the Nativity of Autun by the Master of Moulins) or those of Georges de la Tour in the seventeenth century (the Nativity at Rennes).

Shown at the Impressionist exhibition of 1874, The Cradle was scarcely noticed although some critics did comment on its grace and elegance. After several unsuccessful attempts to sell it, Berthe Morisot withdrew it from display and thereafter the picture remained in Edma's and her daughter's family, until it was sold to the Louvre in 1930.

Explanation of Other Impressionist Genre Paintings

• Race Horses in front of the Stands (1866-8) by Degas.
Musee d'Orsay.

• The Balcony (1868) by Manet.
Musee d'Orsay.

• Bazille's Studio (1870) by Frederic Bazille.
Musee d'Orsay.

• The Floor Scrapers (1875) by Gustave Caillebotte.
Musee d'Orsay.

• The Swing (La Balancoire) (1876) by Renoir.
Musee d'Orsay.

• Paris Street; Rainy Day (1877) by Gustave Caillebotte.
Art Institute of Chicago.

• Young Woman Sewing (1886) by Mary Cassatt.
Musee d'Orsay.