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The Letter, 1891
Softground etching, aquatint, and drypoint, printed in color, third state, 13 5/8 x 8 13/16 in. (34.6 x 22.7 cm)
Gift of Paul J. Sachs, 1916 (16.2.9)
In 1890, there was an exhibition of Japanese prints in Paris. Mary Cassatt, like Edgar Degas and many other French artists, was profoundly impressed by these foreign pictures, and the encounter led her to create a set of ten color prints, which reveal a blend of Asian art and her own nineteenth-century European sensibility. She managed to emulate the flat, linear quality of the Japanese blockprint while softening it with hand-applied color. This is especially evident in the patterns of the woman's dress and the background wallpaper in The Letter. The subject of the print is typical of Cassatt's interests--the familiar pastimes of women of her social circle.

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