Portrait of Marcel 1880

Berthe Morisot sketched ‘Portrait of Marcel’ with pastel, a medium she favoured for its soft and luminous qualities. Morisot, as a woman Impressionist, often focused on domestic scenes and portraits, challenging the traditional male-dominated art world. Here, the sensitive portrayal of a young Marcel offers a glimpse into the artist’s intimate world. The sketch captures a sense of fleeting childhood, yet there is a formal quality in the child's pose and expression that moves beyond the purely sentimental. Morisot's delicate rendering invites us to consider the nuances of childhood and the gaze through which it is interpreted. She once said, "I don't think there has ever been a man who treated a woman as an equal, and that's all I would have asked for, for I know I'm worth as much as they are.” Morisot captures the essence of a moment, reflecting on both the delicate nature of childhood and her negotiation of identity as a woman artist in 19th-century France.