Real painters understand with a brush in their hand.

He took a special interest in Morisot as is evident from his warm portrayal of her in several paintings including a striking portrait study of Morisot in a black veil while in mourning for her father's death (displayed at the top of the article). Both Berthe and her sister Edma Morisot chose to become painters. She continued to show regularly in the Salon to generally favorable reviews until 1873 the year before the first Impressionist exhibition.

Her work was selected for exhibition in six subsequent Salons until in 1874 Berthe Morisot joined the "rejected" Impressionists in the first of their own exhibitions which included Paul Cézanne Edgar Degas Claude Monet Camille Pissarro Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley. She became the sister-in-law of her friend and colleague Édouard Manet when Berthe Morisot married his brother Eugène.