In the Omnibus

1890-1891

Mary Cassatt

Artist, American, 1844 - 1926

Printed with black lines on cream-white paper, two women, one holding a baby on her lap, sit on the long bench seat of an omnibus in this vertical composition. The women and their full skirts take up almost the width of the composition against the bench, which extends off both sides. The woman to our left wears a high-collared dress, gloves, and hat. She looks off to our right, almost in profile. She has a round face and the hint of a double chin. One gloved hand rests on a cane. The other woman holds the baby and tips her head down toward the child. Both women’s black hair is pulled up under their hats. The baby wears a ruffled bonnet, a blousy garment, stockings, and shoes. A row of windows behind them, parallel to the top of the bench, open onto an arched bridge spanning a river with boats. To our left, the water’s edge is lined with puffy forms reminiscent of trees and bushes.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    drypoint in black with graphite on wove paper

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    plate: 36.7 × 26.7 cm (14 7/16 × 10 1/2 in.)
    sheet: 37.8 × 29.1 cm (14 7/8 × 11 7/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1946.21.93

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Mathews and Shapiro 1989, no. 7, ii/vii

Artwork history & notes

Exhibition History

1950

  • Prints by Mary Cassatt, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1950, no cat.

1951

  • Mary Cassatt and her Parisian Friends, Pasadena Art Institute, CA, 1951, no. 38.

1963

  • Prints and Drawings by Mary Cassatt, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. 1963, no cat.

1964

  • Prints by Mary Cassatt, organized by the Smithsonian Travelling Exhibition Service and circulated to 10 venues (Vassar College Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY; Norton Gallery & School of Art, Palm Beach, FL; University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI; Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS; Charles & Emma Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH; Columbus Gallery of Fine Art, Columbus, OH; Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA; and A.D. White Museum of Art at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY), 1964-1965.

1982

  • Lessing J. Rosenwald: Tribute to a Collector, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1982, no. 89, repro.

1990

  • Mary Cassatt: The Color Prints, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Williams College Museum of Art, Williamston, MA, 1989-1990, no. 7-II, repro.

2001

  • The Unfinished Print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2001.

2024

  • Mary Cassatt at Work, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 2024.

Bibliography

1979

  • Breeskin, Adelyn Dohme. Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Graphic Work. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979, no. 145, i/iv.

1982

  • Fine, Ruth E. Lessing J. Rosenwald: Tribute to a Collector. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1982, no. 89.

1989

  • Mathews, Nancy Mowll, and Barbara Stern Shapiro. Mary Cassatt: The Color Prints. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1989, no. 7, ii/vii.

Inscriptions

recto, stamped in black in, lower right corner: R.Mx; verso, stamped in black ink, upper left: LJR; stamped in black ink, lower left corner: RH; inscribed in graphite by unkown hand, lower center: A78399; inscribed in graphite by unknown hand, lower right corner: F )( V

Watermarks

None.

Wikidata ID

Q65081062

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