The Artist's Daughter with a Parakeet

Painted in 1890 when Morisot's daughter Julie was fourteen, this intimate canvas is one of several works in which Morisot depicted her daughter with a pet — a subject allowing her to combine portraiture with the domestic, animal, and garden subjects central to her practice. The parakeet introduces both a note of vibrant color and the dynamic of a child's attention to a living creature. Morisot had been depicting Julie since infancy, and these later works show a maturing subject rendered with the fluid spontaneity characteristic of her late style. The National Gallery of Art in Washington holds this tender record of the Manet-Morisot household.

Morisot applies paint with her characteristic feathery, unfinished-looking strokes, leaving areas of canvas visible beneath the brushwork. The parakeet's vivid green provides a jewel-like color accent against Julie's pale dress and the room's softly suggested interior. Light is diffuse and gentle.