The Letter

1890-1891

Mary Cassatt

Artist, American, 1844 - 1926

We look slightly down onto a young woman sitting at a writing desk as she licks an envelope in this vertical, color print. A table folds down or extends from a tall secretary desk to our right. The blotter on the table and the woman’s long dress are both royal blue. The dress has a vaguely floral pattern in the cream-white of the paper, and the jacket is open to reveal a vertically pleated, beige-pink shirt beneath. The woman’s skin is also the color of the paper. Her black hair is pulled back over dark brows and a delicate nose. She holds the open flap of the envelope to her mouth with both hands. A piece of white paper lies on the desktop in front of her. She sits in a brown chair, and the wallpaper of the room is patterned with green leaves against a white background. The sheet is inscribed with graphite across the right half of the bottom margin, “Imprimée par l’artiste et M. Leroy Mary Cassatt (25 épreuves)."

Media Options

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Artwork overview


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Roger Marx (1859-1913), Paris (Lugt 2229)

Associated Names

Bibliography

1979

  • Breeskin, Adelyn Dohme. Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Graphic Work. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979, no. 146, iii/iii.

1989

  • Mathews, Nancy Mowll, and Barbara Stern Shapiro. Mary Cassatt: The Color Prints. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1989, no. 8, iv/iv.

2011

  • Richard, Mervin. "Preserving Works of Art into the Future." Bulletin / National Gallery of Art, no. 45 (Fall 2011): 9, repro.

Inscriptions

recto: at lower right in black chalk: Imprimée par l'artiste et M. Leroy / Mary Cassatt / (25 épreuves); verso: at lower left in graphite in later hand: A78412; at lower right in graphite in later hand: FHO

Markings

recto: Roger Marx (Lugt 2229); verso: none

Watermarks

PL-BAS

Wikidata ID

Q65362417


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