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We look slightly down onto a woman dressed in golden yellows, sitting in a pale green chair, with a nude child sitting in her lap as they both gaze into a mirror in this vertical portrait painting. Both the people have pale, peachy skin. The chair is angled to our left so the woman’s knees and child cant down toward the lower left corner of the composition, and the woman leans onto the arm closer to us. The chair is painted mint green and the rose-pink upholstery is visible on the seat and a corner behind the woman’s shoulder. To our right, the woman’s vibrant, copper-colored hair is pulled loosely to the back of her head. She has a rounded nose, flushed cheeks, and her full, coral-pink lips are closed. Her long dress has a low, U-shaped neckline. The fabric shimmers from pale, cucumber green to light sunshine yellow. The sleeves of the dress split over the shoulder and a second long, goldenrod-yellow sleeve falls from her elbow off the bottom edge of the canvas. An oversized sunflower, larger than the woman’s face, is affixed to her dress near her left shoulder, closer to us. She looks with dark eyes down toward the small, gold-rimmed mirror she holds in her right hand, farther from us. The child also holds the handle of the mirror with both hands, and in the reflection, the child looks back at us with dark eyes, a button nose, and pink lips. The child’s hair in the reflection is the same copper color as the woman’s, but the child on her lap has blond, shoulder-length hair. The woman rests one hand on the child’s left shoulder, closer to us. The child has a rounded belly and smooth, rosy limbs. The woman and child are reflected in a second mirror hanging on the wall alongside them, opposite us. Their reflections are very loosely painted. The wall behind the pair is sage green across the top and it shifts to fawn brown across the bottom. Brushstrokes are visible throughout, especially in the woman’s dress and hair, and are more blended in the bodies and faces. The artist signed the painting in the lower right corner, “Mary Cassatt.”

Mary Cassatt

Woman with a Sunflower, c. 1905

West Building, Ground Floor - Gallery 39

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 92.1 x 73.7 cm (36 1/4 x 29 in.)

framed: 114.3 x 95.2 cm (45 x 37 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Chester Dale Collection

Accession Number

1963.10.98

Artists / Makers

Mary Cassatt (artist) American, 1844 - 1926

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

lower right: Mary Cassatt

Provenance

Roger Marx [1859-1913], Paris; on deposit 1908 with (Durand-Ruel, Paris, deposit no. 11393); (Roger Marx sale, Galerie Manzi-Joyant, Paris, 11-12 May 1914, no. 15); acquired by (Durand-Ruel, Paris) for Louisine Waldron Havemeyer [1855-1929], New York; (her sale, American Art Association Anderson Galleries, New York, 10 April 1930, no. 82, as La Femme au Tournesol); purchased by Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York; bequest 1963 to NGA.

Associated Names

American Art Association
Dale, Chester
Durand-Ruel et Cie
Galerie Manzi-Joyant
Havemeyer, Louisine Waldron
Marx, Roger

Exhibition History

1915: Loan Exhibition of Masterpieces by Old and Modern Painters, M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1915, no. 50, as Mother and Baby Reflected in Mirror.

1928: A Memorial Exhibition of the Work of Mary Cassatt, Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 15 March - 15 April 1928, no. 3, as Child Looking Into Mirror.

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

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. 89, as The Mirror (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

1930: "Rush at Auction of Havemeyer Art." The New York Times. 11 April 1930: 23.

1942: French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 43, repro.

1944: French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1944: 45, repro.

1953: French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1953: 54, repro.

1965: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 86, repro.

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

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 35, repro.

1981: Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: repro. 141, 144.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 41, repro.

1993: Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney, et al. Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,1993: 301, no. 60, repro.

1997: Southgate, M. Therese. The Art of JAMA: One Hundred Covers and Essays from The Journal of the American Medical Association. St. Louis, 1997: 28-29, color repro.