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The Letter

Mary Cassatt American
Printer Monsieur LeRoy French
1890–91
Not on view
Between 1890 and 1891 Cassatt produced ten color aquatints inspired by an exhibition of Japanese ukiyo-e woodcuts she had seen at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in spring 1890. Her work led Degas to remark, "I do not admit that a woman can draw like that." Cassatt's images depict such scenes of everyday life as a tending a child, writing a letter, or riding the bus. In this only known impression of the first state of The Letter, Cassatt traced the basic design in drypoint; its appealing rough texture derives from the rich burr thrown up by a needle scratching through copper. With the wallpaper, chair, and desktop still to come, the figure appears more immediate and volumetric than in the print's final state.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Letter
  • Artist: Mary Cassatt (American, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1844–1926 Le Mesnil-Théribus, Oise)
  • Printer: Monsieur LeRoy (French, active 1875–1900)
  • Date: 1890–91
  • Medium: Drypoint, printed in black ink from one plate; first state of four
  • Dimensions: plate: 13 9/16 x 8 15/16 in. (34.4 x 22.7 cm)
    sheet: 13 5/8 x 9 1/8 in. (34.6 x 23.2 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Gift of Arthur Sachs, 1916
  • Object Number: 16.3.2
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

More Artwork
Nurse and Child, Mary Cassatt American, Pastel on wove paper (originally blue), mounted on canvas, American
Nurse and Child
Mary Cassatt
1896–97
Ceramic Horn, Glazed pottery, French
Ceramic Horn
French
late 18th or early 19th century
Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), or The Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei) , Katsushika Hokusai Japanese, Woodblock print; ink and color on paper, Japan

Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), or The Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)

Katsushika Hokusai
ca. 1830–32
Lydia Crocheting in the Garden at Marly, Mary Cassatt American, Oil on canvas, American
Lydia Crocheting in the Garden at Marly
Mary Cassatt
1880
Osage Warrior, Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin French, Watercolor and graphite on off-white wove paper, American
Osage Warrior
Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin
1805–7

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