The Artist's Daughter, Julie, with her Nanny - Berthe Morisot (1884)

Artist

Oil on canvas

Musée Marmottan Monet

This oil on canvas painting by French Impressionist Berthe Morisot (1841–1895) depicts an intimate domestic scene in which the artist's young daughter, Julie, is shown alongside her nanny in what is also known as The Sewing Lesson. The two figures are arranged in a warm interior setting, the nanny attentively guiding the child with a piece of fabric, rendered in Morisot's characteristic loose, fluid brushwork that captures light, movement, and the quiet textures of everyday bourgeois life. Morisot was a central figure of French Impressionism—the only woman to exhibit at the first Impressionist Exhibition in 1874—and she consistently drew her subjects from the domestic sphere, with her daughter Julie serving as one of her most frequent models. The painting exemplifies Morisot's distinctive contribution to the movement: an intimate, feminine perspective on private life that expanded the thematic scope of Impressionist art.