CLEVELAND, OH.- 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 and “a mind-meld, merging the spirits and sensibilities of Édouard Manet and Berthe Morisot” by The New York Times, 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.