Of the six Impressionist painters whose first exhibition scandalized and fascinated Paris in 1874, Berthe Morisot was the only woman. She reached a pinnacle of artistic achievement despite the restraints society placed on her sex, adroitly combining her artistic ambitions with a rewarding family life. Anne Higonnet brings fully to life an accomplished artist and her world.

Anne Higonnet is Associate Professor of Art History at Wellesley College and the author of Berthe Morisot's Images of Women (1992).

"[A] superb biography. . . . With great skill, Higonnet sets Morisot's story against the backdrop of 19th-century art and politics."—Christine Temin, The Boston Globe

"[Anne Higonnet] has written Morisot's biography with a scrupulous honesty that resists temptations of impertinent interpretation. Drawing on previously unpublished journals and letters, Ms. Higonnet delineates the facts of Morisot's life as if with an incisive etching tool; her cool, logical pen makes a contrast to the supple brush with which Morisot caught transient light. . . . An important introduction to an extraordinary achievement."—Anne Truitt, New York Times Book Review

"Anne Higonnet makes an excellent case for re-routing our assumptions about artistic achievement. And she makes it imperative that we reconsider the achievements of Berthe Morisot."—Felicia Kornbluh, Women's Review of Books

"A memorable portrait of an admirable woman, as elegantly simple and light in touch as a Manet, or a Morisot."—Entertainment Weekly