Édouard Manet and Berthe Morisot lived during a tumultuous yet fertile period in France. Events included war and the loss of territory; modernization and the rise of industry; and a shift from rural to urban living. As both artists were living in Paris, it became the largest city in continental Europe and the arts capital of the world. Manet and Morisot’s lifetime also coincided with the birth and rise of a new art form—photography—which recorded many of these social, political, and cultural changes.
Masters of the new medium such as Charles Marville and Édouard-Denis Baldus were commissioned by the Emperor Napoleon III, the Louvre museum, and the railroads to document both historic monuments and the construction of new architectural and engineering marvels throughout the country. This era also saw the rise of celebrity portraiture and of the general public as patron. Actresses such as Sarah Bernhardt and popular authors Victor Hugo, Charles Baudelaire, Alexandre Dumas, and others sat for photographers such as Nadar, André-Adolphe-Eugene Disderi, Gustave Le Gray, and Étienne Carjat. The resulting portraits were printed—and sold—in large quantities to meet a soaring public demand for portraits of the luminaries of the time. When the rising urban middle class sought to have their own likenesses recorded, they flocked to the same studios.
France in the Time of Manet and Morisot
10 May – 23 August, 2026
Cleveland Museum of Art
https://www.clevelandart.org
Male Nude c. 1870–75 Guglielmo Marconi
Young Alsacienne Woman c. 1871 Adolphe Braun
Female Peasant Carrying a Basket and Hay c. 1870 Auguste Giraudon
Sarah Bernhardt in “Zaire” by Voltaire 1874 Étienne Carjat
Woman in Lorraine Dress c. 1871 Adolphe Braun
Young Girl Seated on Straw, Leaning on a Basket 1862 Edmond Bacot
Black Horseman in Front of a Doorway c. 1855 France, 19th century
Two Shepherdesses Resting with Two Sheep late 1870s Auguste Giraudon’s Artist
