Artwork Page for Knitting in the Library

Details / Information for Knitting in the Library

Knitting in the Library

c. 1881

Mary Cassatt

(American, 1844–1926)
Culture
America
Medium
softground etching and aquatint
Measurements
Platemark: 27.8 x 21.7 cm (10 15/16 x 8 9/16 in.); Sheet: 36.5 x 27.8 cm (14 3/8 x 10 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Dudley P. Allen Fund 1988.36
Catalogue raisonné
Breeskin 30
State
II/III
Copyright
Copyright
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

Mary Cassatt often made only a few (or even just one) impression of her early softground etchings, making these prints virtually unique works.

Description

Beginning from a spare drawing of her mother in her home library, Mary Cassatt created this etching by adding aquatint to her copper plate, creating tonal variations and bold contrasts of light and shadow. This is an extremely rare artist's proof of the second of three versions of the etching. Early prints like Knitting in the Library were private rather than commercial works of art, exercises in experimentation and innovation made by Cassatt as she explored Impressionism.
Print in black ink of a woman seated in an armchair, turned slightly to our left and mostly cast in shadow save for the thick streaks of white light cast over the left side of her body. She looks down at her hands, holding something blurred into a grainy darkness. Few features of her eye-glass wearing face are discernable. On a bookshelf behind her, horizontal streaks of white texture book spines.

Knitting in the Library

c. 1881

Mary Cassatt

(American, 1844–1926)
America

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