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Jean C. Harris stated of this work, "…this etching comes from the oil portrait of Morisot of 1872, but is smaller in scale and the image is reversed as compared with that in the oil. In the etching, Manet rejects to some extent the varied vocabulary of strokes which he used in The Boy with Soap Bubbles of 1869 in favor of a more simplified rendering with long, uniformly fine, vertical lines…Many wispy shapes, the ribbons and the hair, break the simple contour. Yet these lines do not function as independent calligraphic accents, but retain their functions as delineators of the characteristic elements of Morisot's appearance" (Harris 216). This intimate portrait of fellow Impressionist Berthe Morisot depicts the care and skill utilized by Manet in executing this piece. Dressed in a fine hat and clothes characteristic of the time period, Morisot's expression appears confident and pleased to be seated on the other side of the easel.
