Mother Playing with Child, ca. 1897
Mary Cassatt (American, 1844–1926)
Pastel on wove paper, mounted on cardboard
Artist Biography
Technical Glossary
Mary Cassatt (American, 1844–1926)
Pastel on wove paper, mounted on cardboard
25 1/2 x 31 1/2 in. (64.8 x 80 cm)
From the Collection of James Stillman, Gift of Dr. Ernest G. Stillman, 1922 (22.16.23)
Cassatt applied pastel in thick strokes and blended it into a very fine texture and sometimes into the paper itself, as did Edgar Degas. Her repetition of a particular subject—women with children—also may have been inspired by Degas, who reiterated themes, such as ballerinas and bathing women, in accordance with his credo: "It is essential to do the same subject over again, ten times, a hundred times. Nothing in art must seem to be chance, but even movement." Cassatt used this pastel as the basis for the last of her major prints, Picking Daisies in a Field (ca. 1896–97), which remained unfinished.
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Art Movement/Style
Artist
- Cassatt, Mary (American, 1844–1926)
