Impressions of a Friendship: New Exhibition Explores the Creative Exchange Between Artists Édouard Manet and Berthe Morisot

CLEVELAND (March 25, 2026)—Manet & Morisot is the first ever major exhibition dedicated to the artistic exchange between Édouard Manet, often referred to as the father of modern painting, and Berthe Morisot, the only woman among the founding members of the Impressionist movement. Through comparisons of related works made between the late 1860s and the late 1880s, this exhibition traces the evolution of a singular friendship between two groundbreaking artists. Described as “a marvelous exhibition” by The Washington Post (opens in a new tab) and “a mind-meld, merging the spirits and sensibilities of Édouard Manet and Berthe Morisot” by The New York Times (opens in a new tab), this exhibition comes to the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) following record-breaking attendance at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.  

Manet and Morisot met around 1868 and were close colleagues—and at times competitors—for 15 years until Manet’s death. More than just friends, they became family members when Morisot married Manet’s younger brother Eugène in 1874. Over 40 artworks reveal the evolution of their artistic relationship in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s ticketed exhibition on view Sunday, March 29, through Sunday, July 5, 2026, in the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Gallery.  

“Unfolding over a period of roughly 15 years, between 1868 and 1883, Manet and Morisot’s relationship was perhaps the closest of any two members of the Impressionist circle and had a determining effect on the course of art history,” said Emily Beeny, Chief Curator of the Legion of Honor and Barbara A Wolfe Curator in Charge of European Paintings at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and curator of Manet & Morisot. “Through carefully selected pairs and groups of related works, this project traces the close friendship—by turns collaborative and competitive, playful and charged—between the artists. It is a story written in their pictures. Considering them side by side, we watch it all unfold: their shared interests and struggles, their mutual influence and understanding.” 

Thirty-six paintings and seven drawings and prints borrowed from museums and private collections in the United States and Europe will be on view. Visitors will see beach and garden scenes made en plein air (out-of-doors) that demonstrate how Manet borrowed individual motifs and compositional ideas directly from Morisot. Portraits of fashionable Parisian women of the 1880s by the two artists show their different perspectives; Manet’s paintings were inspired by admiration and erotic interest while Morisot’s were informed by lived experience. The exhibition will close with a self-portrait by Morisot painted when she was in her mid-40s, revealing her perception of herself as a professional artist. 

The story of their relationship has often been told through the perspective of the portraits that Manet painted of Morisot between 1868 and 1874, with Morisot cast as a muse and model rather than as an esteemed peer.  This exhibition aims to broaden this viewpoint showing that although Morisot looked to Manet for inspiration and approval during her early career, by the mid-1870s Manet began to follow Morisot’s example, emulating her choice of subjects, colors, and fluttering brushwork. “This exhibition brings to life the relationship between the two artists, and we hope visitors will come away with a better understanding of how influential Morisot’s work was to Manet, especially in his later years. The exhibition provides a reflection on how a friendship can evolve over time,” said Heather Lemonedes Brown, Paul J. and Edith Ingalls Vignos Jr. Curator of Modern Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art.  

This exhibition is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Art.  

Presented by 

Generous support is provided by Anne T. and Donald F. Palmer. Additional support is provided by Carl M. Jenks. 

This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. 

The exhibition is accompanied by a 350-page catalogue with illustrated essays, correspondence, and a technical study that invites readers into the artists’ shared social circle and contrasting studio practices. 

Manet & Morisot Tours 

Daily, 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. from Tuesday, March 31, 2026, until Friday, July 3, 2026 

Ames Family Atrium 

Ticket Required 

Join a guided tour of Manet & Morisot and discover the fascinating bond between Édouard Manet and Berthe Morisot. Our docents illuminate the complex relationship of these two groundbreaking artists, colleagues, family members, and friends. Featuring 36 paintings and seven drawings and prints loaned from major US and European collections, the exhibition reveals the evolution of their singular artistic friendship. 

Tours meet their docent at the information desk in the Ames Family Atrium.  

To schedule private tours for adult groups of 10 or more, please contact grouptours@clevelandart.org or call 216-707-2752. 

There are no tours on Saturday, July 4—the museum is closed in observance of Independence Day. 

“Manet & Morisot”: An Impressionist Friendship 
Wednesday, April 29, 2026, 6:00–7:00 p.m. 
Gartner Auditorium 
Ticket Required 

Édouard Manet is remembered as the “father” of modern painting, and Berthe Morisot, the only woman founding member of the Impressionist group, is often mis-remembered as his pupil. The truth is more complicated. Friends and colleagues, painter and model, collectors of each other’s work, and members of the same family: Manet and Morisot enjoyed a closer relationship than any two other members of the Impressionist circle. While Morisot learned a great deal from Manet during the hours she spent posing in his studio at the beginning of their friendship, by its final years, as she found her own path, Manet began to take lessons from Morisot’s work, borrowing her subject matter, her palette, even her rapid, fluttering brushwork. Tracing their story through works on view in the exhibition Manet & Morisot, discover a friendship that shaped the course of modern art. 

Complementary Exhibition  

France in the Time of Manet and Morisot 

Sunday, May 10–Sunday, August 23, 2026 

Mark Schwartz and Bettina Katz Photography Galleries | 230 Photography 

Free; No Ticket Required 

Édouard Manet and Berthe Morisot lived during a tumultuous yet fertile period in France. Events included war and the loss of territory; modernization and the rise of industry; and a shift from rural to urban living. Paris at that time became the largest city in continental Europe and the arts capital of the world. Manet and Morisot’s lifetimes also coincided with the birth and rise of a new art form—photography—which recorded many of these social, political, and cultural changes.  

Masters of the new medium such as Charles Marville and Édouard Baldus were commissioned by the Emperor Napoleon III, the Louvre museum, and the railroads to document both historic monuments and the construction of new architectural and engineering marvels throughout the country. This era also saw the rise of celebrity portraiture and of the general public as patron. Actresses such as Sarah Bernhardt and popular authors Victor Hugo, Charles Baudelaire, Alexandre Dumas, and others sat for photographers such as Nadar, André-Adolphe-Eugene Disderi, Gustave Le Gray, and Étienne Carjat. The resulting portraits were printed—and sold—in large quantities to meet a soaring public demand for portraits of the luminaries of the time. When the rising urban middle class sought to have their own likenesses recorded, they flocked to the same studios.  

In this exhibition, drawn from the museum’s rich holdings of 19th-century French photography, we can feel that we, like the photographers, are eyewitnesses to the transformation of France in the 1800s. This show was organized to complement Manet & Morisot, on view in the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Gallery from March 29 through July 5, 2026. 

This exhibition is made possible with support from Anne T. and Donald F. Palmer. 

All exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Exhibitions. Principal annual support is provided by Michael Frank and the late Pat Snyder, the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation, the John and Jeanette Walton Exhibition Fund, and Margaret and Loyal Wilson. Major annual support is provided by the late Dick Blum and Harriet Warm and the Frankino-Dodero Family Fund for Exhibitions Endowment. Generous annual support is provided by two anonymous donors, Gini and Randy Barbato, Cynthia and Dale Brogan, Dr. Ben and Julia Brouhard, Brenda and Marshall Brown, Gail and Bill Calfee, the Leigh H. Carter family, Dr. William A. Chilcote Jr. and Dr. Barbara S. Kaplan, Mary and Jim Conway, Joseph and Susan Corsaro, Ron and Cheryl Davis, Richard and Dian Disantis, the Jeffery Wallace Ellis Trust in memory of Lloyd H. Ellis Jr., Leigh and Andy Fabens, Florence Kahane Goodman, Martha H. and Steven M. Hale, Janice Hammond and Edward Hemmelgarn, Linda Harper, Robin Heiser, the late Marta and the late Donald M. Jack Jr., the estate of Walter and Jean Kalberer, Robert M. Kaye, Jane and Doug Kern, the late Mrs. Nancy M. Lavelle, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, William S. Lipscomb, Bill and Joyce Litzler, the Roy Minoff Family Fund, Lu Anne and the late Carl Morrison, Mrs. Peta and the late Dr. Roland Moskowitz, Jeffrey Mostade and Eric Nilson and Varun Shetty, Sarah Nash, Courtney and Michael Novak, Tim O’Brien and Breck Platner, Dr. Nicholas and Anne Ogan, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, Henry Ott-Hansen, the Pickering Foundation, Frank and Fran Porter, Christine Fae Powell, Peter and Julie Raskind, Michael and Cindy Resch, Marguerite and James Rigby, in memory of Dee Schafer, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, Elizabeth and Tim Sheeler, Saundra K. Stemen, Paula and Eugene Stevens, the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Claudia Woods and David Osage. 

About the Cleveland Museum of Art 

The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is renowned for the quality and breadth of its collection, which includes more than 66,500 artworks and spans 6,000 years of achievement in the arts. The museum is a significant international forum for exhibitions, scholarship, and performing arts and is a leader in digital innovation. One of the leading encyclopedic art museums in the United States, the CMA is recognized for its award-winning open access program—which provides free digital access to images and information about works in the museum’s collection—and free of charge to all. The museum is located in the University Circle neighborhood with two satellite locations on Cleveland’s west side: the Community Arts Center and Transformer Station. 

The museum is supported in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture and made possible in part by the Ohio Arts Council (OAC), which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts. The OAC is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally, and economically. For more information about the museum and its holdings, programs, and events, call 888-CMA-0033 or visit cma.org.