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, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.98

Current Exhibition

Mary Cassatt

An American in Paris

Details

  • Dates

    -

  • Locations

    West Building

    West Building Main Floor, Gallery M86

  • Ticketing Information

    Admission is always free and passes are not required

An intimate exhibition brings together rarely-seen treasures and iconic works by Mary Cassatt, marking 100 years since her death.

Mary Cassatt’s art and life reflect an independent spirit that defied expectations for women in her time.  Explore three galleries in the National Gallery’s impressionist collection to look closely at how she worked. Some 40 paintings, drawings, and prints—largely drawn from our rich holdings of her work—show an artist shaped by tradition yet radically modern.

Selected works

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 sandy 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. A mark with an oval, or a mirrored C, over an uppercase M, is stamped in royal blue at the bottom center of the print. The sheet is inscribed with graphite across the right half of the bottom margin. Text reads, “Edition de 25 épreuves Imprimée par l’artiste et M. Leroy Mary Cassatt."
Mary Cassatt, In the Omnibus, 1890-1891, color drypoint, softground etching, and aquatint on laid paper, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.250
A woman standing on a ladder propped against a wall hands fruit down to a nude child held by a second woman in this vertical colored print. The scene is printed with areas of mostly flat color in shades of vivid green, earthy browns, and pastel pinks and blue. The women and child have peachy-toned skin and brown hair. Both women wear long, floral-patterned dresses with long, loose sleeves, and their hair is pulled back in buns at the napes of their necks. The ladder, to our left, leans against the verdant green vines growing up the brown wall. The woman standing on the ladder wears a powder-blue dress over an apricot-orange and white patterned kerchief around her neck. She looks down in profile at the child to our right. The child sits facing away from us in the other woman’s arms, bare buns squished along one forearm. The child reaches for the fruit, perhaps a cluster of small grapes. The second woman wears rose pink, and her face is hidden by the child’s head. An opening in the wall to the right leads back to an open space with more greenery. The sky above is a strip of topaz blue along the top edge of the print.
Mary Cassatt, Gathering Fruit, c. 1893, color drypoint, softground etching, and aquatint on laid paper, Rosenwald Collection, 1943.3.2757

Stories

The image depicts a seated woman wearing a large coat and skirt. She is seated with her body angled to the side, head turned slightly towards the viewer. The woman has delicate facial features, with her hair covered by a fluffy hat. Her hands are resting in her lap as she sits on a wide chair. She is not wearing any visible jewelry or holding any objects. The background features simple vertical lines resembling a plain interior wall, creating a minimalist setting.

Interactive Article:  Mary Cassatt, the Daring Printmaker

The pioneering American impressionist was one of the most innovative printmakers of her generation.

A small brown dog and a pale-skinned little girl wearing a white dress sit in matching celestial-blue armchairs in this horizontal painting. To our right, the girl sits with her legs angled to our left. She slumps back with her legs spread, and her left elbow, on our right, is bent so that hand rests behind her head. Her other elbow is draped over the armrest. Her dark brown hair appears to be pulled back, and tawny brown eyes under faint brows gaze down and to our left. She has a small nose set in a round face and a coral-pink mouth closed in a straight line. Her white dress has touches of gray, soft pink, and powder blue with a wide plaid sash around her waist. The pine-green, black, and sapphire-blue sash is accented with overlapping vertical and horizontal lines of burnt orange, light blue, and mustard yellow. Her socks match her sash and come up to mid-calf, over black shoes with silver buckles. The small dog has scruffy black fur and a russet-brown face. It lies curled in the chair opposite the girl, to our left, with its eyes closed and ears pricked up. The rounded backs of the upholstered chairs curve down to become the low arms. The vivid and light blue fabric of the chairs is scattered with loosely painted strokes of avocado and forest green, peach pink, cherry red, plum purple, and white. Beyond the chairs closest to us is another armchair and an armless loveseat, both covered with the same fabric. They sit at the back of the room, in a corner flooded with silvery light coming through four windows on the right side. The furniture is arranged on a peanut-brown floor. The artist signed in the lower left, “Mary Cassatt.”

Article:  Mary Cassatt Brings Girls and Women into the Museum

Author and art historian Katy Hessel on the impressionist's iconic painting.

A student smiles in front of a painted mural at Altadena Elementary School

Video:  How a Mural Healed a Community

After a wildfire destroyed their elementary school, a group of young artists came together to rebuild—by painting a mural inspired by Mary Cassatt’s lost masterpiece.

Organization
Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington

Curated by Kimberly A. Jones, curator of nineteenth-century French paintings, department of French paintings; Rena Hoisington, curator and head, department of old master prints; Mary Morton, curator and head, department of French paintings; with Michelle Bird, curatorial associate, department of French paintings, all of the National Gallery of Art.

Sponsors 
Major support for the exhibition has been provided by the Judy and Peter Blum Kovler Foundation.

The exhibition is also made possible through the support of the Leonard and Elaine Silverstein Family Foundation.
 

 

You may also like

A rooster woodcarving and a wooden rocking horse.

Exhibition:  Women and the Index of American Design

Exhibition:  Broken