Marries Eugène Manet

On December 22, 1874, Berthe Morisot married Eugène Manet, the younger brother of the celebrated painter Édouard Manet, who had been a close friend, informal mentor, and possibly a source of romantic tension in Morisot's earlier years. The marriage took place in Paris and marked an important personal and professional turning point for the artist.

Unlike many marriages of the period, which often curtailed a woman's independent career, Eugène Manet was himself a painter (though far less accomplished) and proved to be a supportive, encouraging partner who actively championed his wife's artistic ambitions. He managed practical and business aspects of her career, including correspondence with dealers and exhibition organizers, allowing Morisot to continue producing and exhibiting work throughout her marriage.

This union placed Morisot firmly within the social and artistic orbit of the Manet family, deepening her connections to the emerging Impressionist circle. The couple had one daughter, Julie Manet, born in 1878, who later became a subject of many of Morisot's most tender and celebrated paintings and eventually an important custodian of her mother's artistic legacy and archive.

The marriage exemplifies a rare historical instance in which a woman artist's domestic partnership actively facilitated, rather than hindered, her professional trajectory — a notable departure from the constraints typically placed on married women artists in nineteenth-century France.