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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 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)."

Mary Cassatt

The Letter, 1890-1891

Not on View

Medium

color drypoint and aquatint on laid paper

Dimensions

plate: 34.61 × 22.54 cm (13 5/8 × 8 7/8 in.)

sheet: 47.94 x 31.12 cm (18 7/8 x 12 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Mrs. Jane C. Carey as an addition to the Addie Burr Clark Memorial Collection

Catalogue Raisonné

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

Accession Number

1959.12.5

Artists / Makers

Mary Cassatt (artist) American, 1844 - 1926

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

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

Marks and Labels

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

Provenance

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

Associated Names

Carey, Andrew G., Mrs.
Marx, Roger

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.