The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

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
softground etching and aquatint
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.)
Dudley P. Allen Fund 1988.36
Catalogue raisonné: Breeskin 30
Location: Not on view

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.
  • ?-1988
    (David Tunick, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
    1988-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • “The Year in Review for 1988.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 76, no. 2 (February 1989): 30–75. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 72, no. 154 www.jstor.org
    Lees, Sarah, and Richard R. Brettell. Innovative Impressions: Prints by Cassatt, Degas, and Pissarro. Tulsa, Oklahoma : Philbrook Museum of Art, 2018 Mentioned: p. 44; reproduced: p. 45, fig. 44
    Georgopulos, Nicole. ""Please Don't Let Your Ambition Sleep": Cassatt's Professionalism". In Cassatt - McNicoll: Impressionists Between Worlds, Caroline Shields, ed., 49-82. Toronto, Ontario: Art Gallery of Ontario; Fredericton, New Brunswick: Goose Lane Editions, 2023. Reproduced: P. 74-75, 76-77
  • Innovative Impressions: Cassatt, Degas, and Pissarro as Painter-Printmakers. Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK (organizer) (June 9-September 9, 2018).
    Mary Cassatt and the Feminine Ideal in 19th-Century Paris. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 14, 2012-January 20, 2013).
    L'Impressionnisme vu d'Amérique. Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France (organizer) (June 9-September 9, 2007); Musée de Grenoble, Grenoble, France (October 6, 2007-January 20, 2008).
    Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 7, 1993-January 2, 1994).
    The Year in Review for 1988. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 1-May 14, 1989).
  • {{cite web|title=Knitting in the Library|url=false|author=Mary Cassatt|year=c. 1881|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1988.36