Morisot's Portraits of Julie Manet

Still less famous than her adored Impressionist sister Mary Cassatt, the Parisian painter Berthe Morisot had some solid bragging rights: She was a founding member of the Impressionists and participated in all but one of the group’s eight exhibitions. And that singular absence, at the Fourth Impressionist Exhibition in 1879, was not for lack of artistic output. Morisot physically couldn’t take part in the show because she was recovering from the birth of her only child, Julie Manet. (The following year, as if to make up for the lost opportunity, she came back with a vengeance, contributing a whopping 15 paintings and watercolors.) With time, Julie—the reason Morisot was forced to blemish her perfect Impressionist exhibition participation record—became her mother’s most frequently painted muse.