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Mother Feeding Child, 1898
Pastel on wove paper, mounted on canvas, 25 1/2 x 32 in. (64.8 x 81.3 cm)
Gift of Dr. Ernest G. Stillman, 1922 (22.16.22)
Mary Cassatt worked largely in oil until 1879, when she turned seriously to pastels, undoubtedly encouraged by her close friend Edgar Degas. Mother Feeding Child is characteristic of Cassatt's accomplished pastel work of the 1890s in the focus paid to pattern, as seen in the printed decoration on the baby's dress, and in the repetition of curvilinear shapes in both figures and in the plate and covered dish on the tabletop. The pastel is also notable for its sensitive representation of the intertwined hands of the models. Attention to the special bond between mother and child was characteristic of Cassatt's work during this period.

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