Morisot, Edma (1839-1921) - Portrait of Berthe Morisot 1865

Portrait of French Impressionist artist Berthe Morisot by her older sister, Edma.

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Edma Morisot (1839-1921) was a French artist and the older sister of the Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot.

Edma was born in 1839 in Valenciennes, France. Brought up largely in Paris, Edma Morisot received a bourgeois education, like her sisters Yves and Berthe, that included piano and drawing. All three sisters were encouraged to pursue drawing by their mother, who had them first study with the neoclassical painter Geoffroy Alphonse Chocane in 1857. Edma and Berthe both wanted to pursue their training further, which led them to take lessons under the well-regarded painter Joseph Guichard, a former student of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. 

Guichard encouraged the young women to copy paintings at the Louvre, which the two women visited chaperoned by their mother. There, they met the artist Félix Bracquemond in 1859, who introduced them to Henri Fantin-Latour. The Morisot sisters soon tired of copying the old masters, and in 1860 they began to study with the Barbizon painter Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, who taught them to paint en plein air. In 1863, when Corot became too busy to instruct them, Edma and Berthe came under the tutelage of another Barbican painting, Achille François Oudinot. The sisters later broke with Oudinot on acrimonious terms, and they later referred to Corot as their teacher who introduced them to several artists including Edouard Manet.

Edma's landscape paintings were strongly influenced by the Barbizon style of her instructors, such as Corot. She painted numerous landscapes, but in 1863 she also turned to portraiture. That year, she painted a remarkable portrait of her sister Berthe, which shows her concentrating in front of her canvas.

In 1864 she submitted two paintings to the annual Salon, both of which were accepted. She also submitted paintings that were accepted in 1865, 1866, 1867 and 1868. In 1867 Edma also sent three paintings to a provincial exhibition in Bordeaux, one of many organised by the Friends of Art societies. The sisters sold, or at least tried to sell, paintings through Alfred Cadart. Her paintings, which now reside in private collections, largely comprise landscapes and portraits.

On 8 March 1869, Edma married Adolphe Pontillon, a naval officer and long-time friend of Édouard Manet. The couple moved to Lorient in Brittany. Edma's career as an artist effectively ceased following her marriage. She painted a portrait of her husband and executed some pastel copies of Berthe's work, but other artistic production during her marriage remains unknown. Edma died in Paris in 1921.