The Loge

c. 1878-1880

Mary Cassatt

Artist, American, 1844 - 1926

Shown from the knees up, two young women with pale, peachy skin wearing white gowns sit close together and almost fill this vertical painting. The women are angled to our left and look in that direction. The young woman on our right has a heart-shaped face, dark blond hair gathered at the back of her head, and light blue eyes. Her full, coral-pink lips are closed, the corners in greenish shadows. Her dress is off the shoulders, has a tightly fitted bodice, and the skirt pools around her lap. The fabric is painted in strokes of pale shell pink, faint blue, and light mint green but our eye reads it as a white dress. She wears a navy-blue ribbon as a choker and long, frosty-green gloves come nearly to her elbows. She holds a bouquet in her lap, made up of cream-white, butter-yellow, and pale pink flowers with grass-green leaves and one blood-red rose. Her companion sits just beyond her on our left and covers the lower part of her face with an open fan. The fan is painted in silvery white decorated with swipes of daffodil yellow, teal green, and coral red. She has violet-colored eyes, a short nose, and her dark blond hair is smoothed over the top of her head and pulled back. She also wears long gloves with her arms crossed on the lap of her ice-blue gown. Along the right edge of hte painting, a sliver of a form mirroring the torso, shoulder, and back of the head of the young woman to our right appears just beyond her shoulder, painted in tones of cool blues. Two curving bands in golden yellow and spring green swiped with darker shades of green and gold arc behind the girls and fill the background. The space between the curves is filled with strokes of plum purple, dark red, and pink. The artist signed the lower right, “Mary Cassatt.”

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 89

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Chester Dale Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 79.8 x 63.8 cm (31 7/16 x 25 1/8 in.)
    framed: 111.1 x 95.3 cm (43 3/4 x 37 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1963.10.96

More About this Artwork

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Learn the hallmarks of one of the most recognizable art movements in the world.

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Purchased April 1896 from the artist by (Durand-Ruel, Paris); sold August 1911 to Baron de Herzog.[1] Marczell von Nemes, Budapest, by 1912;[2] (his sale, Galerie Manzi Joyant, Paris, 18 June 1913, no. 84). Sold 17 December 1929 to Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York;[3] bequest 1963 to NGA.
[1] Letter of 26 March 1930 from Durand-Ruel to Mrs. Chester Dale, in NGA curatorial files.
[2] The painting was included in a 1912 exhibition of his collection in Dusseldorf.
[3] The Chester Dale papers in NGA curatorial files provide the date of purchase, and give the source as "Paul Rosenberg". Press coverage (Art News of 28 December 1929, and Art Digest of 1 January 1930) reported that the purchase was from Wildenstein & Co.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1903

  • The Thirteenth Annual Exhibition of the Society of Washington Artists, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1903, no. 20.

1907

  • 102nd Annual Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelhia, 1907, no. 124.

1931

  • Portraits of Women. Loan Exhibition. Romanticism to Surrealism, Museum of French Art, New York, 1931, no. 18, as Portrait, La Loge.

1932

  • American Painting and Sculpture, 1862-1932, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1932-1933, no. 14.

1937

  • An Exhibition of American Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection, The Union League Club, New York, 1937, no. 30.

1965

  • The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

1970

  • Mary Cassatt 1844-1926, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1970, no. 28, repro.

1998

  • Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman, The Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998-1999, no. 20, repro., as Women in a Loge (shown only in Washington).

2010

  • From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, January 2010-January 2012, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

1923

  • Mauclair, Camille. Les Maîtres de l'impressionnisme. Paris, 1923:252

1930

  • Read, H.A. "The Chester Dale Collection." Vogue 25 (15 February 1930): repro. 81.

1931

  • "Portraiture: Examples at the French Museum and Elsewhere." The New York Herald Tribune (25 January 1931): section VIII, 8.

1942

  • "The Golden Years of France: The Latest Dale Loans to the National Gallery of Art." Magazine of Art 35, no. 5 (May 1942):178

  • French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 41, repro.

1944

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 172, color repro.

  • French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1944: 41, repro.

1946

  • Rewald, John. The History of Impressionism. New York, 1946: repro.

1953

  • French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1953: 51, repro.

1956

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 54, repro.

1960

  • The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 6.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 328, repro.

1965

  • Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 81, repro.

1966

  • Sweet, Frederick A. Miss Mary Cassatt, Impressionist of Philadelphia. Norman, Oklahoma, 1966: 49-50.

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 22, repro.

  • Breeskin, Adelyn Dohme. Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oils, Pastels, Watercolors, and Drawings. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1970, no. 121.

1973

  • Rewald, John. The History of Impressionism. rev. ed. New York, 1973:473, repro.

  • Finley, David Edward. A Standard of Excellence: Andrew W. Mellon Founds the National Gallery of Art at Washington. Washington, 1973: 110.

1976

  • Yeh, Susan Fillin. "Mary Cassatt's Images of Women." Art Journal 35, no. 4 (Summer 1976):359+, repro.

1980

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 126, repro.

  • Getlein, Frank. Mary Cassatt: Paintings and Prints. New York, 1980:42

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 34, repro.

  • Pollock, Griselda. Mary Cassatt. London and New York, 1980:68, repro.

1981

  • Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: repro. 135, 138-139, color repro. 135.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 564, no. 859, color repro.

1988

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 148, repro.

  • Herbert, Robert L. Impressionism: Art, Leisure and Parisian Society. New Haven, 1988:99

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 39, repro.

1994

  • Mathews, Nancy Mowll. Mary Cassatt: A Life. New York, 1994:145, repro.

  • Weinberg, H. Barbara, Doreen Bolger, and David Park Curry. American Impressionism and Realism: The Painting of Modern Life, 1885-1915. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth; Denver Art Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art. New York, 1994: 207, repro.

1996

  • Mathews, Nancy Mowll. Cassatt: A Retrospective. New York: H.L. Levin Associates, 1996.

1997

  • Kelder, Diane. The Great Book of French Impressionism. New York, 1997: no. 143, repro.

2006

  • Søndergaard, Sidsel Maria. Women in Impressionism: From Mythical Feminine to Modern Woman. Exh. cat. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen. Milan, 2006: 194 fig. 164.

Inscriptions

lower right: Mary Cassatt

Wikidata ID

Q3766193

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