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

Upcoming Exhibition

Mary Cassatt: An American in Paris

Details

  • Dates

    -

  • Locations

    West Building, Main Floor, Gallery 86-88

  • Ticketing Information

    Admission is always free and passes are not required

Celebrate this pioneering American impressionist on the 100th anniversary of her death. 

This special installation includes several of Cassatt’s beloved paintings alongside groundbreaking prints and drawings that are rarely on view.

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. 

You may also like

Exhibition:  Amedeo Modigliani

An open window with semi-transparent curtains blowing in the breeze looking out onto an empty field with trees in the background.

Exhibition:  American Places: Featuring Selections from the Corcoran Collection