The Artist's Sister, Edma, with Her Daughter, Jeanne - Berthe Morisot (1872)

Artist

Watercolor over graphite on laid paper

National Gallery of Art

This intimate watercolor by Berthe Morisot depicts her elder sister Edma Pontillon seated alongside her young daughter Jeanne, rendered in the loose, luminous style that defines Morisot's Impressionist work. Edma is shown in a floral-patterned dress on an upholstered chair, her posture relaxed and inward-turned, while the child sits attentively beside her—the two figures united in a quiet moment of domestic tenderness. Morisot, one of the founding members of the Impressionist movement and a central figure in its eight exhibitions, made her sister Edma a recurring subject, returning to her image across multiple works as a way of exploring the themes of femininity, family, and the passage of time. The delicate application of watercolor over graphite on laid paper achieves a characteristic airiness, with soft color and spontaneous mark-making capturing the ephemeral quality of an everyday moment.