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Social Sharing
Mrs. Robert S. Cassatt, the Artist's Mother
ca. 1889
Mary Cassatt
In 1866, the painter and printmaker Mary Cassatt traveled to Paris, where she eventually settled, and became the only American to exhibit with the French Impressionists. Using the loose, fluid brushwork of Impressionism, she depicted scenes that typically featured women in social or domestic settings, often capturing private moments.Â
In the many and varied portraits she produced of her mother, born Katherine Kelso Johnston, Cassatt honored the strength and dignity of a woman who profoundly influenced and supported her throughout her artistic career. Here Mrs. Cassatt appears in three-quarter profile, cradling her face in one hand as she gazes pensively ahead. The solidly rendered, austere black dress she wears contrasts with the sketchy and colorful brushstrokes that swirl around her, animating the surrounding space and anchoring the sitter in an environment suffused with the artist’s creative energies.
- Artist
- Mary Cassatt
- Title
- Mrs. Robert S. Cassatt, the Artist's Mother
- Date
- ca. 1889
- Place of Creation
- United States
- Object Type
- Painting
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 36 1/4 x 25 5/8 in. (92.075 x 65.088 cm) Framed: 44 3/8 x 34 in. (112.713 x 86.36 cm)
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase, William H. Noble Bequest Fund
- Accession Number
- 1979.35
