The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 25, 2024
Lydia and her Mother at Tea
c. 1880
(American, 1844–1926)
Sheet: 27.5 x 36 cm (10 13/16 x 14 3/16 in.); Platemark: 17.9 x 27.9 cm (7 1/16 x 11 in.)
Catalogue raisonné: Breeskin 69
Location: not on view
Description
Cassatt made bourgeois domesticity and the activities of her friends and family the primary subjects of her art. Here, she depicted her mother and sister partaking in the ritual of drinking tea. Seven years older than Cassatt, Lydia frequently modeled for her sister, and the two were familiar figures around Paris, visiting the Louvre, attending openings of art exhibitions, and joining small gatherings of friends in the art and literary circles of the 1870s. The sisters remained unmarried, and as convention prescribed, lived within the protected environment of the family home. This is an impression of the first state of Lydia and her Mother at Tea, Cassatt’s first conception of the scene. In subsequent states, Cassatt darkened the composition with aquatint, largely masking her initial design with passages of tone and texture.- Edgar Degas, Paris (Lugt 657) sold Degas estate sale 1918 lot 25 as Les Deux Amies prenant le thé, lot of 4 states purchased by Durand-Ruel; stamped twice with unidentified collector's stamp; Robert Hartshorne, New York (Lugt 2215b, not stamped) sale Christie's October 30, 2007, no. 23.
- Mary Cassatt and the Feminine Ideal in Nineteenth-Century Paris. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 14, 2012-January 20, 2013).
- {{cite web|title=Lydia and her Mother at Tea|url=false|author=Mary Cassatt|year=c. 1880|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2008.5