Berthe Morisot drawing, with her daughter

Although art was an amateur pursuit for women within upper middle-class French society, Berthe Morisot's (1841-95) talent and artistic ambitions went far beyond social expectation, and she became a committed painter and member of the impressionist group. While lacking a conventional art training, she had the benefit of private tuition and of individual contacts. From Camille Corot in 1860-61 she learned to paint out of doors, paying attention to changing effects of light. And around 1868, she was introduced to Edouard Manet, who was at the forefront of the modern tradition. Over the following years she made the acquaintance of a circle of independent painters and in 1874, the year in which she was married to Eugène Manet, the artist's brother, she showed at the first impressionist exhibition in Paris. Morisot participated in all but one of the eight group exhibitions - the exception was in 1879, following the birth of her daughter Julie the previous year.

Morisot looked at modernity differently from her male impressionist collages, and she found her subject matter close to hand, frequently using her own family as models. Julie, her favourite, appears in numerous images, sometimes posed with her father and on this occasion accompanying a self-portrait. It is often popularly known as The drawing lesson. In this print, one that Morisot developed from a drawing made two years earlier, she captures the intimacy of the relationship with Julie. The latter leans over her shoulder and studies her mother's sketch while Morisot looks into the mirror. The shared moment and informal grouping suggest an immediacy that is enhanced by the dexterity of execution, with areas of light and shadow captured in delicately incised lines.

This is one of eight drypoints that Morisot made in 1888 and 1889, prompted probably by the enthusiasm for the process shown by her friend and fellow artist Mary Cassatt, as well as by the growing value artists attached to printmaking as an experimental medium, and by the increasing importance that drawing assumed in her own work. Drypoint, in which the artist scratches with a sharp needle directly onto the metal plate, is a printmaking technique that demands immense precision and linear control. Many of the other characteristics that can be identified in this print, such as apparent freedom and spontaneity, are found in her pastels and chalk drawings, and are qualities that Morisot brought to drawing.

Morisot's prints were never published in her lifetime and were seen only by family and friends. Sometime after her death in 1895 the plates were acquired by the famous dealer Ambroise Vollard who printed an edition of 25 of this work in c. 1904-5. This impression is almost certainly later and was made after steel-facing the plate.

Sourced from Julie King, 'Berthe Morisot...', in William McAloon (ed.), Art at Te Papa (Wellington: Te Papa Press, 2009), p. 55.  Additional note on edition by Dr Mark Stocker, Curator, Historical International Art, December 2018.