The Artist's Sister, Edma, with Her Daughter, Jeanne (recto); The Artist's Sister Edma Seated Outdoors (verso)

Berthe Morisot

National Gallery of Art

This painting shows two people sitting together on a sofa, a woman on the right and a child on the left. The woman is turned slightly towards the child as she leans against one of the arms of the sofa. She wears a light-colored dress with a blue floral pattern and a black waistband, and she holds a thin red-and-yellow object in her hand, perhaps a closed fan. She has a black necklace and a black bow in her hair. Both the woman and the child have pale blue-white skin and light brown hair. The child looks out at us, wearing a light-colored dress with a pale pink ribbon around the waist. The sofa they sit on is brown with pink cushions. The background is painted in light strokes of gray, with beige paper visible around the edges. Colorful brush marks are visible around the painting's border, as if the artist was testing the different colors.