Past Exhibition

Mary Cassatt

This print shows two women sitting together. The woman in the front is seated, holding a banjo, with her body turned to us and her face looking to the right. The neck of the banjo points to the right. The woman in front has dark hair styled neatly behind her head, dark eyebrows, long eyelashes, and lips set in a neutral expression. She is wearing a long-sleeved dress with puffy teal sleeves, a white and light blue striped bodice, and a light blue skirt with pink polka dots, with a yellow scarf around her neck. Her arms are positioned around the banjo. The second woman sits behind her, her hands on the banjo player's shoulders, watching her play. This woman has lighter colored hair with short bangs, and wears a light pink dress. She appears younger than the other woman. Both of them have pale yellow skin. The background is plain beige paper.
Mary Cassatt, The Banjo Lesson, c. 1893, color drypoint and aquatint with monoprint inking on Japanese paper, Gift of Mrs. Jane C. Carey as an addition to the Addie Burr Clark Memorial Collection, 1959.12.6

Details

  • Dates

    -

  • Locations

    East Building, Ground Floor, Northwest
This print shows two women sitting together. The woman in the front is seated, holding a banjo, with her body turned to us and her face looking to the right. The neck of the banjo points to the right. The woman in front has dark hair styled neatly behind her head, dark eyebrows, long eyelashes, and lips set in a neutral expression. She is wearing a long-sleeved dress with puffy teal sleeves, a white and light blue striped bodice, and a light blue skirt with pink polka dots, with a yellow scarf around her neck. Her arms are positioned around the banjo. The second woman sits behind her, her hands on the banjo player's shoulders, watching her play. This woman has lighter colored hair with short bangs, and wears a light pink dress. She appears younger than the other woman. Both of them have pale yellow skin. The background is plain beige paper.
Mary Cassatt, The Banjo Lesson, c. 1893, color drypoint and aquatint with monoprint inking on Japanese paper, Gift of Mrs. Jane C. Carey as an addition to the Addie Burr Clark Memorial Collection, 1959.12.6

Overview: The exhibition included 105 prints, 11 drawings, 3 pastels, and 6 paintings, primarily from the collection of Cassatt prints given to the National Gallery by Lessing J. Rosenwald, as well as works from public and private collections in the United States and abroad. This first large exhibition devoted to Cassatt's color prints was organized by the Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, in association with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the National Gallery of Art.

Organization: Exhibition curators were Nancy Mowll Mathews, Prendergast curator, Williams College Museum of Art, and Barbara Stern Shapiro, associate curator of prints, drawings, and photographs, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Margaret Morgan Grasselli, curator of old master drawings, coordinated the exhibition at the National Gallery.

Sponsor: The exhibition was funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Attendance: 141,361

Catalog: Mary Cassatt: The Color Prints, by Nancy Mowll Mathews and Barbara Stern Shapiro. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with Williams College Museum of Art, 1989.

Other Venues:

  • Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 09/09/1989–11/05/1989
  • Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 11/24/1989–01/21/1990

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