How does Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets elucidate its Description?
The half-length portrait is on a canvas measuring 55.5 × 40.5 centimetres (21.9 × 15.9 in) – 71.5 × 57.5 centimetres (28.1 × 22.6 in) with frame – and is signed "Manet 72" in the upper right corner. It is a study in shades of black. Unusually for Manet's portraits, which typically have an even light, Morisot is lit from one side, so that she is brightly illuminated on her right side and the left is in deep shadow. She wears black mourning dress and hat, with her face surrounded by black ribbons and scarves, against a lighter background, and an earring in each ear.  The violet flowers are barely perceptible where the neckline of Morisot's dress dips towards her chest. Manet also painted violets in his Woman with a Parrot of 1866.
Manet painted Morisot with black eyes, although her eyes were actually green. The dark costume and eyes may allude to Manet's impression that she looked Spanish. Manet had earlier painted a similar portrait of his own mother in mourning, made in 1863, which shows his mother clad in black, on a dark background.
The painting was followed by a similar etching – probably the first copy, with the pose reversed – and two lithographs, all made in 1872 to 1874.  Manet made a similar painting of Morisot in mourning dress in 1874, after the death of her father, Edmé Tiburce Morisot.
violets Morisot mourning dress