Partly thanks to Denis and Annie Rouart’s bequest in 1993, the Marmottan Monet Museum benefits from a large set of Berthe Morisot pieces. The collection was directly inherited from Berthe Morisot and Eugène Manet, Denis Rouart being their grandson by his mother Julie Manet.
Three years later, Thérèse and Julien Rouart’s (also Berthe Morisot’s grandson) bequest completed this collection with three beautiful Morisot paintings and Empire furniture from her living room.
The great friendship between Ernest and Julie Rouart with Hector Lefuel, first curator of the museum, certainly facilitated both generous bequests.
The museum is now in possession of 81 of the artist's pieces: oil paintings, watercolors, pastels, drawings, and 7 sketchbooks that were deposited by the Rouart family. In 1997, the collection was the subject of an exhibition and a catalogue (Berthe Morisot or Reasoned Audacity, Denis and Annie Rouart Foundation).
Among the set, the most beautiful paintings include two portraits of Berthe Morisot’s husband Eugène in the Isle of Wight and Eugène and His Daughter in the Garden at Bougival, the artist’s self-portrait, and At the Ball, a later donation of Mrs. Donop de Monchy.