A new name emerges from the Impressionist team, a name accompanied by a well-known surname but which hides a figure not so remembered by the history of art.

Julie Manet has more famous relatives than not: she is in fact the nephew of Édouard Manet, born from the marriage between her younger brother Eugène Manet and Berthe Morisot, in turn Impressionist painters (in this case with more success than the wife than the husband).
Not content with Julie, she will marry Ernest Rouart, painter and son of art of the artist and collector Henri Rouart.

Berthe Morisot, Eugène Manet et sa fille dans le jardin de Bougival – Courtesy Womennart

Despite the relationships, however, the artist is not a name that echoes when one reads of the French movement: but this year the will to revive his name and her life is in the hands of the Marmottan Monet Museum.

“Julie Manet, la mémoire impressionniste” will in fact be the first exhibition dedicated to her, in a path that starts from a young age and from the relationships with the illustrious personalities of the time: not only the aforementioned family members, but also the presence of Renoir, who in addition to supporting her after the death of her parents, she portrayed her, or the protection of the poet Mallarmé.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Julie Manet – Courtesy Dailyartmagazine

His position as a collector can only be analyzed, first of all of his mother’s obviously inherited works, but also of other contemporaries: an example above all are Monet’s Water Lilies acquired by Michel Monet, which will find splendid application in the bequests then made to French institutions to promote primarily the role of the mother, the first Impressionist woman.

A figure so fascinating and relevant, and at the same time so unknown, she will (finally) receive the light she deserves, in a journey through the events of one of the most loved and most exciting currents.

Julie Manet – Courtesy Nytimes