Growing Up with the Impressionists: The Diary of Julie Manet

by Julie Manet

Julie Manet, the niece of Edouard Manet and the daughter of the most famous female Impressionist artist, Berthe Morisot, was born in Paris on 14 November 1878 into a wealthy and cultured milieu at the height of the Impressionist era. Many young girls still confide their inner thoughts to diaries and it is hardly surprising that, with her mother giving all her encouragement, Julie would prove to be no exception to the rule. At the age of ten, Julie began writing her `memoirs' but it wasn't until August 1893, at fourteen, that Julie began her diary in no neat leather-bound volume with lock and key but just untidy notes scribbled in old exercise books, often in pencil, the presentation as spontaneous as its contents. Her extraordinary diary - newly translated here by an expert on Impressionism - reveals a vivid depiction of a vital period in France's cultural history seen through the youthful and precocious eyes of the youngest member of what was surely the most prominent artistic family of the time.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, History, Art History, France

247 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Julie Manet was a French painter, model, diarist, and art collector.

She was the daughter and only child of artist Berthe Morisot and Eugène Manet, and niece of painter Édouard Manet. The death of both parents within a three-year period left her orphaned at the age of 16. She came under the guardianship of the poet/critic Stéphane Mallarmé and went to live with her cousins. She also received support from the family's artist friends, Renoir in particular.

Her teenage diary, published in English as "Growing up with the Impressionists", provides insights into the lives of French painters, including Renoir, Degas, Monet, and Sisley, as well the 1896 state visit of Tsar Nicholas II and the Dreyfus Affair.

In May 1900 Julie married the French painter and engraver Ernest Rouart, artist and son of the painter Henri Rouart. Julie had three children, Julien (born 1901), Clément (born 1906) and Denis (born 1908).

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I’m getting more sentimental as I get older. The ending of this made me tear up. 😂 It’s so lovely to read about a life well lived. Julie Manet was the only daughter of the painter Berthe Morisot and her husband Eugene Manet, brother to the painter Edouard Manet. She was a much beloved daughter and her diary covers 1893 to 1899, from age 14 to 21. It breaks off when she becomes engaged. Due to her parents’ connections in the world of art, Julie grows up uniquely privileged, knowing all the well known French artists of the day as personal friends. In her diary, we see her lose both parents, several years apart, and mourn their loss. She sets up house with her maternal cousins in Paris and travels often to visit her parents’ relations and artist/writer friends in various places in France. There is a subtle transition for her from girl to teenager to young woman that I loved picking up on.

Through her diary, we see Julie engaging with the politics of her day and getting up to the typical teenage/young adult fun. She works on her own painting, becomes a steward of her mother’s work through various exhibitions, goes often to art galleries, and spends time with Monsieur Degas and Monsieur Renoir and his family. (They often seemed to be quarreling, those two artists. 😂) It’s such a wonderfully human insight into these famous historical figures who, of course, had real human lives with family quarrels and tragedy, humorous escapades, strident opinions, and, especially, real care and kindness for orphaned Julie.

It seems fitting that the diary ends as Julie moved into a new season of life as a wife and mother to three sons. Her husband, Ernest Rouart, was a painter as well and they were involved in the Paris art scene well into the 20th century. Jane Roberts, the translator and editor, notes in the epilogue that Julie picked up her diary again but it tended to be more self reflective as she became increasingly committed to her Catholic faith. It was a real pleasure to spend time with Julie and to step into the French world of art and politics and everyday life in the 1890s.

[Bess · Rating 3 out of 5]

As other people have noted, this is a treasure to read if you are interested in the lives of the impressionists.

However, I have to say, being familiar with the letters of Berthe Morisot and Edouard Manet, this makes for a depressing read. It is hard to watch Julie fall into the same bourgeois routine, and adopt increasingly conservative views. It is a stark contrast to her mother who put off marriage until 35 to cement her career not just as an artist but an artist in the "new school" and her staunchly anti-clerical republican father.

I would have liked the editor to touch upon this and critique the anti-semitism more in the Introduction, it is all presented rather non-chalantly. Giving donations to the La Libre Parole is pretty damning; it is clear Julie was an active anti-Semite. Lets not beat around the bush.

[Linniegayl · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite artists have long been the Impressionists, in particular Monet and Renoir. But I recently developed an interest in Berthe Morisot. While reading a book about Morisot and her paintings, I discovered this book, a compilation of some of her daughter Julie’s diaries. The book includes numerous paintings done by Berthe Morisot and other Impressionists. The diary entries offer delightful insights into the life led by Julie both before and after the death of her parents, when numerous Impressionist painters looked over Julie, included her in their dinners, outings, and vacations.

“Monsieur Renoir got back this week and he came to eat oysters with us this weekend.”

“Monsieur Renoir came to dinner. He wondered why the Monet exhibit had not impressed
him.”

“I went to M. Monet’s exhibition, quite decided not to be influenced by what had been said to
me. Contrary to the opinion of many people, I found the flowers beautiful.”

Along the way Julie spends time on her own painting, often copying art at the Louvre, and being critiqued there by such artists as Renoir and Degas. This is definitely different than my usual nonfiction reading, but I feel I now know more than I did before about Paris in the late 1800s, and about the intertwined lives of many of the Impressionists.

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone who's interested in the French impressionists should read this - it's truelly magnificent!

[Mattea Gernentz · Rating 5 out of 5]

June 2023: Reading these journals anew feels like revisiting an old friend! I was delighted to reread this text at CHB, situated between Tours and Blois—two locations in the French countryside that figure into Berthe Morisot and Julie Manet's travels (and, thus, also their artworks). I finished my reread today while sitting by the Seine, right after viewing works by Monet and Morisot! This time, I was primarily charting Julie's usage of color in her diary descriptions, the presence of the Bois as a setting for Parisian encounters, the French texts Julie records reading, and more. I'm scribbling away at some ekphrastic poems on Morisot's works created within/near the Loire Valley and still chipping away at my future PhD project on the women Impressionists and nature. Exciting!

January 2021: Reading this while listening to classical music was a day well-spent. Such a charming account that helps to humanize monumental figures like Renoir, Morisot, Manet, Degas, and Monet, captured through the attentive eyes of Julie Manet from the ages of 14 to 21. What a life to lead, full of jaunts to paint in the French countryside and rich conversation but also so full of sorrow and unexpected tragedy. The diary follows Julie as she loses first her father and then her beloved mother, forges her own path as an artist under Renoir's tutelage, and falls in love with Ernest Rouart. This was an early birthday gift to myself, but it helps that I can count this as a source for my dissertation! The one significant downfall: disheartening anti-semitism (conflated with patriotism) in the wake of the Dreyfus Affair shared amongst the French artistic elite that Julie absorbs. (Thankfully, Monet was not one of these people, so my great love for him lives on.) A reminder that these legendary artists were deeply human and, therefore, fallible in their pursuit of beauty and truth.

[Libby · Rating 3 out of 5]

If, like me, you're a big fan of Berthe Morisot and a huge fan of Edouard Manet, reading the diary of Morisot's daughter/Manet's niece is an absolute treat. There's not much literary merit to it but if you're into this group of artists it's really interesting from a historical perspective. I thought it would be a diary more like my journal, with musings & interior thoughts, but it's a lot of descriptions of exhibitions, short details of a day's events, noting comments from various people in her social circle - which sounds dull, but is incredibly interesting when it revolves around Degas, Renoir, Mallarme, etc.

Probably the most interesting entries were those around the Dreyfus affair - the intense anti-semitism is a bit of a shock to say the least.

[Yana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating insight into the everyday life of the impressionists... I couldn't stop thinking how exceptional it was to get to grow up, surrounded by some of the greatest artists of the time - not only painters like Julie's mother Berthe Morisot, Renoir, Monet, Degas and so on, but also writers like the poet Stephane Mallarme.

Being brought up in this enviroment shaped the way Julie saw the world beautifully. And I mean this literally - when she talks about something that she saw, like the visit of Tsar Nicholas II, she describes it as if it was a painting:

"A couple of ordinary carriages went by and at last, to the excited cries of the spectators, the procession appeared. First, lots of different soldiers, riflemen, hussars all in blue mounted on lovely white horses; then Algerian cavalry in their turbans, their wonderful robes in the most delicious shades of almond green, red and yellow, flapping in the wind, on beautiful Arab thoroughbreds, their hindquarters covered in long embroidered blankets in the most magnificent colours and practically trailing on the ground. It was like looking at a Delacroix when one of these proud horses in their magnificent harnessing reared and snorted. What a treat for the eye! All this through the branches of the trees seemed to take on the colours of the most brilliant flowers or the most exquisite jewels."

Following are some of my favorite parts of the diary with my thoughts on it:

"My dearest little Julie, I love you as I die; I shall still love you even when I am dead; I beg of you, do not cry; this parting was inevitable. I hoped to be with you until you married… Work hard and be good as you have always been; you have never caused me one single sorrow in your little life. You have beauty, money; make good use of them. I think the best thing would be for you to live with your cousins in the rue de Villejust, but I do not wish to force you to do anything. Give your Tante Edma a souvenir of me, and your cousins too; and give Monet’s Bateaux en réparation131 to your cousin Gabriel. Tell Monsieur Degas that if he founds a museum he is to choose a Manet. A keepsake for Monet; one for Renoir; and one of my drawings for Bartholomé. Give something to the two concierges. Do not cry. I love you more than I can tell you.
Jeannie, take care of Julie." - Berthe Morisot's final letter to her daughter, written on her deathbed.

"Monsieur Renoir came to see us at the same time as Monsieur Mallarmé, who brought each of us a box of bonbons with a charming little four-line poem. He has done this every year for the last nine years. This one is very pretty, particularly sweet and terribly ‘Mallarmé-like’. We kissed him, and took the opportunity to kiss Monsieur Renoir too.
It was lovely to see our witty painter and our charming poet chatting together as they had done so frequently on those Thursday evenings at home, in the lofty pink salon, where my parents, surrounded by their works, entertained their wonderful friends.
It made me think of Monsieur Renoir’s comment, which touched Maman so deeply when it was repeated to her. The poet and the painter were on their way home after dinner with Maman, and were talking about her charming way with guests, her looks, her talent. ‘And to say that any other woman with all the talents she has would have a thousand reasons to be quite insufferable’, said Monsieur Renoir." The evening described is an example of what I was talking about - we get to see how the artists and their families interacted.

"Until now, I have been very ambitious – I wanted to have real talent. Now I want only to be a bit more accomplished than a silly young lady who paints fans and lampshades, and perhaps in due course I won’t even have that meagre ambition. Isn’t virtue the greatest glory? We should just do what we can and, doing that well, we will be satisfied. Pleasing God is really the only true happiness."- this passage touched me because despite the fact that Julie had amazing luck growing up with all the people, mentioned above, I think it was also hard for her to make peace with the fact that she may not be as talanted as her mother and her uncle, Eduoard Manet. It was quite natural for her to dream about being a great artist, like her relatives and many of their family friends. You can see all of this clearly in this section: "Whenever I go to the cemetery, behind the big cyprus tree which shadows my parents’ granite tomb, I see the blue sky, which seems to whisper to me: ‘Those for whom you mourn are happy.’ Oh Maman, please tell me if I am going the right way in life. I would so like to have a character like yours, love what you loved and would have loved, paint as you would have liked me to, in short really be your daughter. If only I could be like you. Maman, whom I loved so much, please inspire me!"

"When Monsieur Renoir took off the bandages on his arm this evening, I was appalled at the sight of all that hair: men are just so ugly, aren’t they?! An animal at least has thick fur to hide the skin below, but the skin shows through man’s hair; it’s quite revolting! I would certainly need plenty of courage to marry one of them." This one really made me laugh. She is right though.

The following is written shortly after Mallarme's death:

"We arrived at Valvins at about 2 o’clock. How dreadful it was to take the path beside the Seine towards the home of the person who is no longer there. The boat seemed to be quite solitary – his boat, the boat that he liked so much – and it reminded me of my first outing in it in 1887 with Maman and Papa, who asked Monsieur Mallarmé if he had ever written anything about his boat. ‘No,’ he replied, casting a glance at its sail, ‘for once, I am leaving this great page blank.’ "

All in all, the diary impressed me (pun intended).

[Ken Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is fascinating to see how the niece of Edoard Manet and daughter of Berthe Morisot viewed her world. She experienced a fair amount of tragedy with the death of her parents and others close to her at a relatively young age. It gives a sense of how a young girl with means and connections lived in he late 19th century. It is sometimes hard to digest her naive view of world events like Dreyfus Affair and other political situations of the time. But then again, she reflected the various views of many of the artists of that time. I found her writing engaging. She felt deeply and expressed herself well. I especially appreciated the very thorough footnotes. In my view, these made the book read more like a historical account of the times than just a diary. There are many interesting characters and books that are noted and worth researching.

[Dennis Dingus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insight into Renoir and degas

I started reading this without expecting to much...I was wrong. The excerpts offered from the diary of Julie Janet give a glimpse into the characters of renoir, degas, and others that I had not expected. If your interested in impressionist painters it is worth the read.

[Alison McMahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great background on the life of the Impressionist, but slow paced and not really enlightening if you already know the background.

[Christy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Julie Manet, the daughter of Eugène Manet and the most famous female Impressionist artist, Berthe Morisot, was born in Paris on 14th November 1878 into a wealthy and cultured milieu at the height of the Impressionist era. Many young girls still confide their inner thoughts to diaries and it is hardly surprising that, with her mother giving all her encouragement, Julie would prove to be no exception to the rule. At the age of ten, Julie began writing her "memoirs" but it wasn't until August 1893, at fourteen, that Julie began her diary in earnest: no neat leather-bound volume with lock and key but just untidy notes scribbled in old exercise books, often in pencil, the presentation as spontaneous as its contents. Her extraordinary diary - newly translated here by an expert of Impressionism, reveals a vivid depiction of a vital period in France's cultural history seen through the youthful and precocious eyes of the youngest member of what was surely the most prominent artistic families of the time.

[Sharlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a gem of a book. At the age of 10 Julie Manet wanted to write a diary. Her uncle was THE Manet. Her mother Berthe Manet, a celebrated artist in her own right. But Julie was 14 before she finally got around to keeping a diary. And every reader should be happy she did. As you read her daily life it's like being immersed in the late days of the Impressionists. Julie spends summers with Monet, visits with Dali, travels extensively. But the world of that time is filled with death & disease. She loses her father, then her mother, and several others in her circle. One has also to get through the terrible anti-Semitism of the period shared by these people. There are also numerous photos of Julie, her family, and many paintings.

[Renata Rocha Inforzato · Rating 4 out of 5]

J'ai beaucoup aimé le journal et l'écriture de Julie Manet. Cependant, je trouve dommage que la maison d'édition n'ait pas traité cet ouvrage comme il faut. Il n'y a pas aucune note de bas de page pour expliquer le contexte historique, ni les personnes mentionnées. Le public connaît Renoir, Monet, Manet. Mais et Jeanne Baudot? la famille Clément? Et les soeurs de Berthe Morisot et les cousines de Julie Manet? Quelques pages ajoutées à la fin du livre pourraient bien nous expliquer qui étaient ces personnes aussi importantes pour Julie. Le plaisir de la lecture se perd beaucoup sans cette contextualisation nécessaire.

[Birte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well... it has to mentioned that Julie Manet's diary is very antisemitic as well as sexist, classist and racist. Julie is a naive, sheltered young upper class girl, a fact that is reflected in her views. Especially her thoughts on the Dreyfuß affair are horrible and hard to read.
So why would anyone want to read her diary? Julie, the only daughter of Berthe Morisot, grew up among the great French impressionists and in her diary she describes unusually intimate moments of these artists. Readers who can overlook her political views and are interested in impressionism are sure to enjoy this book.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Une balade au cœur des impressionnistes. Julie Manet perd ses deux parents jeune, son journal intime traverse son adolescence, les drames, la peinture en fil rouge, les leçons et l’amitié protectrice de Renoir et Mallarmé, les voyages en province, les paysages, la vie à Paris, l’affaire Dreyfus et la situation politique complexe en toile de fond.
Un an après la mort de Berthe Morisot, ses amis impressionnistes montent une exposition très complète de son travail. La jeune Julie, sa fille, découvre l’installation des œuvres comme une album photo de famille, la pénétration de l’art dans la vie est alors évidente et fascinante.

[Goda Januskeviciute · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the book, although you really have to like the impressionists and know some of their background, especially, Berthe Morisot’s (it’s her daughter’s diary). It was really interesting from a historical perspective, but I’d agree that anti-semitism should be touched upon in the introduction.

[Carol Griffiths · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is interesting to see the world of the Impressionists through the eyes of a young girl - the daughter of Berthe Morisot. The diary also gives insight into the lives of some of the artists she was closest to; especially Renoir and Degas.

[Rosella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ojalá este libro nunca tuviese final. Si Renoir estuviese vivo seríamos besties

[Maria R · Rating 3 out of 5]

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[Hanne DV · Rating 5 out of 5]

i loved it! It took some time but i liked it. It had a lot of details and a lot of photo's!

[Carissa Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely look into the Impressionists world - very insightful and beautiful!

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ce livre devrait donner 5 étoiles, mais il est difficile de donner une telle note à un journal; néanmoins, il est exceptionnel pour une fille aussi jeune, fille des artistes impressionnistes Eugène Manet et Berthe Morisot, de compiler une vue aussi merveilleuse et éclairante du monde de l'art parisien de 1893 à 1899. Les années Belle Époque couvertes par Julie Manet dans son journal permettent au lecteur de découvrir l’art, la politique, les scandales et les célébrations, les voyages et la vie de famille à travers le regard attentif d’une adolescente inculquée par des intellectuels et des grands artistes de l’époque.
(veuillez excuser la traduction d'un anglophone)

[Violet Lemay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Julie Manet's diary gives tremendous insight into the circle of impressionists who lived and worked in Paris. Fascinating!

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Changing to 5 stars because its literally such a banger...even if a bit bourgeois ÷/