絵を描くポール・ゴビヤール

Berthe Morisot painted this portrait of her niece Paule Gobillard in 1887. Paule had been orphaned young and was raised by Berthe and her husband Eugène Manet, brother of the painter Édouard Manet, and she grew into her aunt's most dedicated pupil. The two of them went to the Louvre together to copy the old masters, and at 20 Paule earned her own copyist's card, official permission to set up an easel in the galleries. This picture may mark that moment. Morisot shows her from the side, palette in one hand and brush in the other, at work, the only portrait of Paule in which she is not dressed for a ball.