Girl in Red Hat with Dog
Mary Cassatt American
This dynamic, unfinished oil sketch highlights Cassatt’s expressive and spontaneous technique as she developed her Impressionist practice in the early 1880s. Evidence of the artist’s working method is especially visible in the subject’s stylish hat and costume and in the depiction of the dog, where Cassatt’s rapid brushwork mimics the animal’s spiky fur. Though the human model has not yet been identified, the dog may be Cassatt’s own beloved Brussels Griffon, who appears in many of her paintings from this period. The design of the white period frame (though not original to this painting) is attributed to Edgar Degas, Cassatt’s great friend and mentor.