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Maternal Caress

Mary Cassatt American
Printer Jointly printed by the artist and Monsieur LeRoy French
1890–91
Not on view
After transferring her design for this print from the preparatory drawing (64.123.3), Cassatt established the figures with drypoint lines, incising directly into the copperplate with a needle. She then built up the areas of tone and pattern by working across two additional plates using aquatint. This work is one of a series of ten color prints for which she was directly inspired by Japanese ukiyo-e woodcuts, evident in the flattening of the pictorial space and use of unmodulated color. The artist first exhibited the print as "Nude Child" (Enfant nue); the current title derives from the 1948 catalogue raisonné and indicates the extent to which Cassatt’s work came to be associated with the subject of motherhood.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Maternal Caress
  • Artist: Mary Cassatt (American, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1844–1926 Le Mesnil-Théribus, Oise)
  • Printer: Jointly printed by the artist and Monsieur LeRoy (French, active 1875–1900)
  • Date: 1890–91
  • Medium: Drypoint, aquatint and softground etching, printed in color from three plates; sixth state of six (Mathews & Shapiro)
  • Dimensions: Plate: 14 3/8 × 10 9/16 in. (36.5 × 26.8 cm)
    Sheet: 17 1/4 × 11 15/16 in. (43.8 × 30.3 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Gift of Paul J. Sachs, 1916
  • Object Number: 16.2.5
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

More Artwork
Woman Bathing (La Toilette), Mary Cassatt American, Drypoint and aquatint, printed in color from three plates; fourth state of four (Mathews & Shapiro)
Woman Bathing (La Toilette)
Mary Cassatt
Printer Jointly printed by the artist and Monsieur LeRoy
1890–91
Ceramic Horn, Glazed pottery, French
Ceramic Horn
French
late 18th or early 19th century
Gathering Fruit, Mary Cassatt American, Drypoint, softground etching, and aquatint; printed in color on green paper from three plates; eleventh state of eleven (Mathews & Shapiro)
Gathering Fruit
Mary Cassatt
ca. 1893
Lydia Crocheting in the Garden at Marly, Mary Cassatt American, Oil on canvas, American
Lydia Crocheting in the Garden at Marly
Mary Cassatt
1880
Édouard Manet, Seated, Holding His Hat, Edgar Degas French, Graphite and black chalk
Édouard Manet, Seated, Holding His Hat
Edgar Degas
Sitter Edouard Manet
ca. 1868

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