|
|
 |
 |
|
Mary Cassatt (1844–1926)
The Tea, ca. 1880
Oil on canvas; 25 1/2 x 36 1/4 in. (64.8 x 92.1 cm)
Fifth Impressionist exhibition, 1880;
Galeries Durand-Ruel, 1893, 1908
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. M. Theresa B. Hopkins Fund
|
|
|
The Cassatts made themselves at home in Paris with objects brought from America, including the early nineteenth-century Philadelphia tea service depicted here. Cassatt gave the family heirloom as much attention as she gave to the figures in this unusual image of a familiar domestic ritual—afternoon tea. Seeing the painting in the fifth Impressionist exhibition, the French critic Paul Mantz complained, "The wretched sugar bowl remains floating in the air like a dream."
|
|
|
|
|
