Portrait of a Child

Painted in 1894 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, this late work shows Morisot's enduring engagement with childhood as a subject. By her final years her paint handling had grown extraordinarily free, the children in her work increasingly becoming occasions for pure chromatic and brushstroke improvisation rather than objective description. This canvas demonstrates how Morisot's late style pushed toward an almost abstract expressiveness while retaining clear figurative intent.

The child's features are suggested with minimal, decisive strokes, the face built from varied flesh tones with warm shadows. Morisot's characteristic loose handling allows clothing and background to dissolve into each other, creating a shimmering effect in which the child appears embedded in, rather than set against, the surrounding environment.