In this pastel drawing Cassatt enlivened the broad blended passages with brilliant touches of fresh pastel and bold streaks of metallic paint, frequently using moisture to create a multilayered surface. Through the years Cassatt produced pastels on a variety of supports, including paper, paper adhered to canvas, and canvas alone. For this work she used a canvas coated with a ground embedded with pumice or coarse fibers to create a rough surface that would hold the powdery pastels more securely.
Mary Cassatt’s (American, 1844–1926) paintings, pastels, and prints demonstrate her personal philosophy that “women should be someone and not something.” In domestic scenes, Cassatt explores the lives and occupations of women, showing them as active and engaged figures. She depicts women reading, caregivers bathing children, and ladies enjoying tea, sealing a letter, or driving a carriage.
Born in Pennsylvania, Cassatt was the only American to join the French Impressionists. Although she spent most of her life abroad, her family’s connections to Philadelphia have made the museum, which holds eighty-three artworks and numerous letters by Cassatt, an important center for her work.
Source: Philadelphia Museum of Art
