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 navy blue. The dress has a vaguely floral pattern in tan, and the jacket is open to reveal a vertically pleated, tan shirt beneath. The woman’s skin is pale 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. The rest of the room is white with a few lines to indicate a corner and a chair. The artist signed the print under the lower right corner, “Mary Cassatt etat.” Another graphite inscription in the lower left corner of the sheet is indecipherable.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    color drypoint and aquatint on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    plate: 34.61 × 21.11 cm (13 5/8 × 8 5/16 in.)
    sheet: 44.6 x 27.5 cm (17 9/16 x 10 13/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1950.1.40

  • Catalogue Raisonné

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

Artwork history & notes

Exhibition History

1950

  • Prints by Mary Cassatt, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1950.

1951

  • Mary Cassatt and her Parisian Friends, Pasadena Art Institute, CA, 1951, no. 39.

1962

  • A Generation of Draughtsmen, The University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, 1962, no. 27.

1965

  • Master Prints from the Rosenwald Collection, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1965, no. 111, repro.

1966

  • Prints 1800-1945, Minneapolis Institute of Arts; City Art Museum of St. Louis; and Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, San Francisco, 1966, no. 30.

1979

  • Prized Prints, The Grolier Club, New York, 1979.

1989

  • Mary Cassatt: The Color Prints, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, 1989-1990, no. 8-II, repro.

Bibliography

1979

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

1989

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

Inscriptions

lower right in graphite: Mary Cassat / etat

Watermarks

"Fortuna"

Wikidata ID

Q65081087

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