Berthe Morisot identified herself as an impressionist, the French 19th-century group of artists who rebelled against the Salon and the academic works exhibited there. Associated with Monet, Renoir, and Degas, Morisot was included in all but one of the impressionist exhibitions held from 1874-1886. Although associated with the renegade group, as a woman Morisot often escaped the unfavorable judgments the other artists received. Most 19th- and 20th-century critics focused on the "feminine" qualities in her work: intuitiveness and delicacy. That Morisot described the process of painting as a "pitched battle with her canvasses" held no sway in prefeminist literature on the artist.

Born in Bourges, France, to an upper-class household, Morisot and her family moved to Paris in 1848. While educated in the arts like all young women of her class, Morisot's ability to paint well soon became evident to her instructor, Joseph-Benoît Guichard, who warned her parents that she had such talent that she could turn professional. Morisot flourished artistically, copying paintings at the Louvre, studying under the painter Camille Corot, and absorbing the tenets of plein-air painting. During the 1860s Morisot developed a close professional relationship with Edouard Manet. In 1864 she began submitting works to the Paris Salon, where she showed throughout the decade. In 1874 Morisot was invited to exhibit with the Société Anonyme des Artistes-Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs-an event that would become known as the first exhibition of the impressionists. Morisot never returned to the Salon.

Morisot achieved significant recognition during her lifetime. Her work was included in George Petit's International Exhibition and in Paul Durand-Ruel's exhibition of impressionist painting in New York, both in 1887. Married to Eugène Manet, Morisot had one daughter, Julie, who inspired works such as Jeune femme en toilette de bal (Musée d'Orsay, Paris).