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The John Batchelor Show

S8 Ep255: JULIE MANET, THE VALUE OF TRANSIENCE, AND THE AVANT-GARDE Colleague Sebastian Smee. Berthe Morisot's legacy was carried on by her daughter, Julie Manet, to whom Berthe wrote a tender deathbed letter expressing that Julie had provided her solely with happi

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Society & Culture, Arts, News, Books

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 28 December 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

JULIE MANET, THE VALUE OF TRANSIENCE, AND THE AVANT-GARDE Colleague Sebastian Smee. Berthe Morisot's legacy was carried on by her daughter, Julie Manet, to whom Berthe wrote a tender deathbed letter expressing that Julie had provided her solely with happiness. Morisot's work exemplifies the concept of "transience value"—the idea, later articulated by Freud, that the fleeting nature of beauty makes it more precious. Her paintings of adolescents and domestic scenes celebrated the present moment precisely because it was always changing. While the next generation of the avant-garde, such as Van Gogh and Munch, reacted against Impressionism's lack of structure, they built directly upon its liberation of color. Although these newer artists sought more permanence, the Impressionist dedication to capturing fugitive effects proved to have lasting power, validating Morisot's vision of finding profound truth in the ephemeral. NUMBER 8
1925

Transcript

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0:00.0

At Pluralsight, we don't just teach skills.

0:02.8

We are building the tech workforce, who deliver results fast, accelerated by top-tier content.

0:08.6

Lead with confidence, lead with expertise.

0:11.1

Visit us at Pluralsight.com to tap in and learn more.

0:15.4

I'm John Batchewis, Sebastian Smee.

0:17.6

His new book is Paris and Ruins Love War and the Birth of Impressionism.

0:22.2

Julie, the daughter, a perfect representation of Bert. And Julie is with her mother at the end,

0:30.5

and her mother rallies herself the last night of her life. I'm following Sebastian's reporting,

0:35.8

to assign paintings to difference of ones of her friends.

0:39.8

And Julie is a miracle that emerges from the Eugene and Barrett marriage. Eugene has died several years before.

0:50.3

And so Julie lives on with the memory of her mother and the friends around her, I think,

0:55.8

is it Renoir that lives well into, one of them lives well into the 20th century.

1:01.3

Yeah, Renoir does.

1:02.5

And you're quite right to say that she's lost because even though I have a cursory education

1:09.4

and impressionism, I never heard her name before.

1:12.3

And now you reassure me that that might be commonplace.

1:16.6

I think it is in many ways.

1:18.0

You know, her name, her full name is Julie Manet, of course, because she, you know, she was the

1:22.4

daughter of Urgen Manet.

1:24.3

But the fact that, you know, they had managed to keep the Manet name in her family, I think, is really telling.

1:32.3

And, you know, she writes an incredibly beautiful letter.

1:36.3

I mean, I still get emotional when I think about it at the end of Bout's life.

...

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