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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 cobalt blue. The dress has a vaguely floral pattern in white, and the jacket is open to reveal a vertically pleated, beige-pink shirt beneath. The woman’s skin is faintly tinted peach. 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 and muted pink flowers 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)."

Mary Cassatt

The Letter, 1890-1891

Not on View

Medium

color drypoint and aquatint on laid paper

Dimensions

plate: 34.61 × 22.86 cm (13 5/8 × 9 in.)

sheet: 41.75 × 30 cm (16 7/16 × 11 13/16 in.)

Credit Line

Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase through a gift of Josephine Boardman Crane)

Catalogue Raisonné

Mathews and Shapiro 1989, no. 8, iv/iv

Accession Number

2014.136.198

Artists / Makers

Mary Cassatt (artist) American, 1844 - 1926

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

lower right in graphite: Imprimée par l'artiste et M. Leroy / Mary Cassatt / (25 épreuves); lower left verso in graphite by unknown hand: a68205; lower center verso in graphite by unknown hand: 3304

Marks and Labels

stamped lower center plate in blue ink: MC [the artist's monogram]

Provenance

(Childs Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts); Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1956; acquired 2015 by the National Gallery of Art

Associated Names

Childs Gallery
Corcoran Gallery of Art

Exhibition History

1982: American Impressionist Prints, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1982, no. 4.

1983: Mary Cassatt: Impressionist from Philadelphia, Sunrise Museum, Charleton, WV, 1983.

1984: La Femme: The Influence of Whistler and Japanese Print Masters on American Art, 1880-1917, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN, 1984-1985.

1989: Under Pressure: Western Printmaking from the 15th Century to the Present, Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, Florida; Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, 1989-1990, p. 23, repro.

2002: The Gilded Cage: Views of American Women, 1873-1921, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2002.

2003: The Impressionist Tradition in America, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2003-2004.

2015: Focus on the Corcoran: Works on Paper, 1860-1990, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2015.

2016: Three Centuries of American Prints: from the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington; National Gallery in Prague, Prague 1; Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, Mexico City; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, 2016 - 2017, no. 53.

Bibliography

1979: Breeskin, Adelyn Dohme. Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Graphic Work. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979, p. 63, no. 146, iii/iii.

1989: Mathews, Nancy Mowll, and Barbara Stern Shapiro. Mary Cassatt: The Color Prints. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1989, pp. 121-125, no. 8, iv/iv.

2016: National Gallery of Art. Highlights from the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Washington, 2016: 254, repro.