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Mary Cassatt (1844–1926)
Portrait of Alexander J. Cassatt and His Son Robert Kelso Cassatt, 1884–85
Oil on canvas; 39 1/2 x 32 in. (100.3 x 81.3 cm)
Lent by the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Purchased with the W. P. Wilstach Fund and with funds contributed by Mrs. William Coxe Wright, 1959
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Cassatt began this portrait of her eldest brother, Alexander (1839–1906), and his eleven-year-old son during the family's impromptu visit to Paris at Christmas 1884. Young Robbie had little patience for the long sittings, "wriggling about like a flea," as his grandmother reported. In one of her rare depictions of male models, Cassatt emphasized the intimate relationship between father and son by aligning their bodies and gazes and allowing their dark suits to appear as a single continuous form.
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