Swan and Duck, with Portraits of Julie

In this intimate drypoint print, a young girl, Julie Manet, gazes out from the lower right, her face rendered with a soft, almost ethereal quality. She was Berthe Morisot's only child, and a frequent subject in her work. The central focus, however, is on the two birds, a swan and a duck, whose forms are captured with energetic, feathery lines. The composition feels spontaneous, almost like a sketch, yet it conveys a sense of quiet observation. Morisot, an Impressionist, often depicted domestic scenes and portraits of women and children, using quick, visible marks to capture fleeting moments. Here, the drypoint technique (where a needle incises lines directly into a metal plate, raising a burr that holds ink) lends a particular softness and richness to the printed lines, creating a delicate interplay of light and shadow.