The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 23, 2024

The Coiffure

The Coiffure

1890–91
(American, 1844–1926)
America, 19th century
drypoint and aquatint
Platemark: 36.8 x 26.7 cm (14 1/2 x 10 1/2 in.)
Bequest of Charles T. Brooks 1941.79
Catalogue raisonné: Mathews & Shapiro 14, Breeskin 152
Location: not on view

Description

The theme of a woman at her toilette was a common one for male artists of the 19th century for whom it presented the opportunity to depict the female nude—historically considered an essential aspect of artistic practice. For a woman artist to address the subject transgressed social norms of the period. Women were not permitted to attend the illustrious École des Beaux-Arts until 1897, and even at the Académie Julian, which opened to women in 1868, they were not permitted to draw from nude models. Cassatt's answer to the rules of decorum was to suggest the setting of a bourgeois house, rather than the settings her male contemporaries preferred—such as the Turkish bath or the brothel. In her description of the female body, Cassatt relied upon the stylized elegance of her Japanese prototypes, thereby abstracting the nudity of her model.
  • ?-1941
    Estate of Charles T. Brooks, Cleveland, OH
    June 10, 1941
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Mary Cassatt and the Feminine Ideal in Nineteenth-Century Paris. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 14, 2012-January 20, 2013).
    Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Seoul Art Center, South Korea (December 22, 2006-March 28, 2007); Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, South Korea (April 7-May 20, 2007).
    Japonisme: Japanese Influence on French Art, 1854 - 1910. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 9-August 31, 1975); Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ (October 4-November 16, 1975); Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, MD (December 10, 1975-January 26, 1976).
    The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).
  • {{cite web|title=The Coiffure|url=false|author=Mary Cassatt|year=1890–91|access-date=23 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1941.79