In the Omnibus

1890-1891

Mary Cassatt

Artist, American, 1844 - 1926

Mary Cassatt

Two women, one holding a baby on her lap, sit on the long bench seat of an omnibus in this vertical, colored print. The women and their full skirts take up almost the width of the composition against the peacock-blue bench, which extends off both sides. The women and baby’s skin are the color of the cream-white paper. The woman to our left wears a tan-colored, 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. That second woman wears a tea rose-pink dress and a hat with areas of darker pink, fern green, and straw yellow. Both women’s black hair is pulled up under their hats. The baby’s ruffled white bonnet, blousy garment, stockings, and shoes are also the white of the paper, though the hair is picked out with yellow, the lips with pink, and the ball held in one hand with brown. The structure of the women’s bodices, puffy long sleeves, and long skirts as well as the baby’s clothing are outlined in black. 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 spruce green trees. Back inside, the panel behind the women’s legs is peanut brown, and the top of the omnibus is muted mauve purple. The artist signed the work with her initials in graphite in the bottom left, “MC.”

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    color drypoint and aquatint on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    plate: 36.51 × 26.67 cm (14 3/8 × 10 1/2 in.)
    sheet: 44.1 × 27.2 cm (17 3/8 × 10 11/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1943.3.2764

  • Catalogue Raisonné

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

Artwork history & notes

Exhibition History

1950

  • Prints by Mary Cassatt. Rosenwald Collection and gift of Miss Elisabeth Achelis, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1950.

1951

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

1955

  • The Drawing and the Print, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC; and Lowe Gallery, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, 1955, no cat.

1956

  • Masterpieces of Graphic Art from the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1956.

1958

  • Color Etchings and Aquatints by Mary Cassatt, Ogunquit Museum of Art, ME, 1958.

1959

  • The Great Century: France 1800-1900, University of Notre Dame Art Gallery, South Bend, IN, 1959.

1962

  • Paintings, drawings and graphic works by Manet, Degas, Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt, Baltimore Museum of Art, MD, 1962.

  • Berthe Morisot - Mary Cassatt, Huntington Galleries, Huntington, WV, 1962.

1963

  • Prints and Drawings by Mary Cassatt, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1963.

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.

1965

  • Paintings and Sculpture by Americans of Our Times, Ogunquit Museum of Art, ME, 1965.

1967

  • Mother and Child, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Manitoba, Canada, 1967, no. 35.

1971

  • An Impressionist View on Paper - from the Lessing Rosenwald Collection of the National Gallery, Washington, D.C, Art Gallery at the University of Notre Dame, 1971, no. 8.

1973

  • Whistler, Cassatt and Hassam: three American printmakers, Rutgers University Art Gallery, New Brunswick, NJ, 1973.

  • Mary Cassatt, 1844-1926, Newport Harbour Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA; Santa Barbara Museum, CA, 1973-1974.

1982

  • Lessing J. Rosenwald: Tribute to a Collector, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1982, no. 92, repro.

1987

  • Graphic Survey Show, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., November 1987.

1995

  • Prints by James McNeill Whistler and His Contemporaries, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1995.

Bibliography

1979

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

1982

  • Fine, Ruth E. Lessing J. Rosenwald: Tribute to a Collector. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1982, no. 92.

1989

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

1991

  • Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 212, repro.

Inscriptions

recto: below image at left in graphite: M.C.; at bottom left in graphite in later hand: J; verso: none

Markings

recto: none; verso: National Gallery of Art

Watermarks

to identify

Wikidata ID

Q64960375

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