The Cradle, 1872
Berthe Morisot
Oil on canvas · 56 x 46.5 cm
A mother watches over a gauze-veiled infant in soft, quick strokes.
Morisot paints her sister watching over a sleeping baby, a gauzy veil separating mother and child. One of the first great Impressionist images of motherhood, it is tender and quietly modern — intimate domestic life seen through a woman's eyes.
What you're looking at
The veil over the cradle and the curtain at the left are painted with the same loose white strokes, so mother and child are separated by a haze that is also just paint. Her bent arm repeats the line of the baby's. Morisot showed it at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874, where it drew far less abuse than the men's work did.
On a Frame TV
About 4:5, so the matted file. Pale, cool and very low in contrast — it is a quiet picture that will disappear on a sunlit wall and works best in soft indoor light.
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- 4K master file (3840px+)
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- Printable art card
Public domain · one .zip, no sign-up
More like this
Other works in the collection, starting with Berthe Morisot.
