The Mandolin Player

Subtly evoked on the wall behind the placid female mandolin player in this print is Degas’s Fan Mount: Dancers, identifiable by its now somewhat faded patches of silvery paint at upper right and bottom left. With soft lines characteristic of drypoint, Cassatt brought forth that upper right patch of silver in the fan through layered and hatched lines that reverse the dark-light balance established in the fan itself; in her print, light-toned stage sets become dark patches and the darkened stage becomes light, blank space. Cassatt owned Degas’s fan, and its appearance on the wall in this work attests to its pride of place in her collection and prominent display in her home, which was a frequent setting for her works.