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Bust of a Young Woman

ca. 1890

In this unfinished portrait of a young woman, the freely crosshatched backdrop of yellow and light-blue pastel strokes underscores the sitter's sour expression (made evident by her arched eyebrows). Mary Cassatt's bold pastel techniques and unconventional palette were deeply influenced by her close friendship with Edgar Degas, who held this work in his personal art collection.

Artist: Mary Cassatt
Title: Bust of a Young Woman
Date: ca. 1890
Place of Creation: United States
Object Type: Drawing
Medium: Pastel on blue-gray paper discolored to brown
Dimensions: 16 7/8 x 15 3/16 in. (42.9 x 38.6 cm) Framed: 27 15/16 x 25 5/16 in. (70.961 x 64.294 cm)
Credit Line: Memorial gift from Dr. T. Edward and Tullah Hanley, Bradford, Pennsylvania
Accession Number: 69.30.22

Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Paris (L. 658, verso); his estate sale, Galerie Georges Petit,Paris, March 26-27, 1918, lot 104; purchased by Charles Vildrac; Mme Brière, Paris (according to Breeskin 1970); possibly Knoedler & Co., New York, where acquired by Dr. T. Edward (1894-1969) and Tullah Hanley (1926-1992); gift to the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, 1969.
Cambridge, Fogg Art Museum, 1961-62; New York, Gallery of Modern Art; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Works from the Hanley Collection, traveling exhibition organized by Wildenstein & Co. New York (other venues: Denver Art Museum, 1967-68 ; Museum of the Southwest, 1967, no. 96; Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, 1968, no. 5; Buffalo, Cansius College, 1969, no. 7);Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Legion of Honor, 1984, Faces and Figures: 19th century works on paper from the permanent collection;Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1985, Master Drawings from the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts;Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1987, 20 years of Collecting: American Works of Art on Paper from the Achenbach Foundation;
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Legion of Honor 1994-95, Impressions of an Era: Paris 1870-1914; New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997-98, The Private Collection of Edgard Degas;Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Legion of Honor, 1998, The First Fifty Years, Celebrating the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, 1948 - 1998;Milwaukee Art Museum, and Vienna, Albertina, 2011-12, Impressionism: Pastels, Watercolours, Drawings;Saint Louis Art Museum and Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Legion of Honor, 2017, Degas, Impressionism and the Paris Millinery Trade, 2017, no. 80;Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Legion of Honor, Color into Line: Pastels from the Renaissance to the Present, 2021-22, no. 28;Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Legion of Honor, 2024-25, Mary Cassatt at Work, pl. 131.
Esther Bell, Degas, Impressionism and the Paris Millinery Trade, Saint Louis and San Francisco, 2017, no. 80. Furio Rinaldi, Color into Line: Pastels from the Renaissance to the Present, San Francisco, 2021, no. 28.Laurel Garber et al., Mary Cassatt at Work, Philadelphia and New Haven 2024, p. 285, pl. 131.

de Young

Legion of Honor

de Young

Legion of Honor

Bust of a Young Woman

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de Young

Legion of Honor

de Young

Legion of Honor

Social Sharing

Provenance

Exhibition History

Bibliography

Woman holding a swan, mid 4th century BC

Composition of Right Foot, 19th-20th century

Pipe Organ, 1924

The Little Eugène de Montesquiou-Fézensac Asleep, 1783

Motif pour tenue de reine, 2023

Woman's ensemble: dress (a) and bracelet (b), ca. 1920

Portrait of Bianca degli Utili Maselli and Her Children, ca. 1604-5

Portrait of a Youth through time, 2022