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Artwork Page for Mary Cassatt at the Louvre: The Paintings Gallery

Details / Information for Mary Cassatt at the Louvre: The Paintings Gallery

1879–80
(French, 1834–1917)
France, 19th century
etching, softground etching, aquatint, and drypoint
Support: Cream (3) heavy laid paper
Platemark: 30.2 x 12.6 cm (11 7/8 x 4 15/16 in.); Sheet: 36.3 x 26.6 cm (14 5/16 x 10 1/2 in.)
Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr. 1947.459
Catalogue raisonné: Reed & Shapiro 52
State: VII/XX (only known impression of this state)
Location: not on view
Public Domain
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Did You Know?

The figure seated in the foreground is believed to be Mary Cassatt's sister, Lydia.

Description

Degas and his friends Mary Cassatt and Camille Pissarro were all experimental printmakers who combined traditional printmaking techniques to create a black and white equivalent for the tonality and varied textures of paintings. They were all so involved in printmaking that in 1879–80 they planned to publish a journal, Le Jour et la nuit (Day and Night), that would contain original etchings. As a printmaker, Degas was ambivalent about when a plate was considered finished. What attracted him to printmaking was the variability. He thoroughly enjoyed reworking, retouching, and transforming plates, often progressing toward more subtle painterly effects.
Vertically long print in dark ink looking around the edge of a wall at two women in a painting gallery. One stands, viewed from behind, wearing a dark coat and hat, swinging a cane behind her. Seated behind her, in a dark coat and dress that occasionally disappears into the other woman's dark coat, a woman wearing a hat holds a book in front of her face but looks to her left, towards the paintings.

Mary Cassatt at the Louvre: The Paintings Gallery

1879–80

Edgar Degas

(French, 1834–1917)
France, 19th century

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