Mary CassattAmerican, 1844–1926Knitting in the Library
Can I see it?
Not on view at present
Where is “Knitting in the Library” now? Collection: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Not on view at present. Checked September 29, 2026.
Cleveland, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the work
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.
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Details
- Accession number
- 1988.36
In the catalog
Sources
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Image: Wikimedia Commons — CC0
In the life of Mary Cassatt
The whole life10 April 1879
The 1879 Impressionist exhibition
Mary shows eleven works, among them “Lydia in a Loge, Wearing a Pearl Necklace”; critics call her colours too bright and her portraits too accurate, yet her work is not savaged as Monet’s is. The show, organised and underwritten by Gustave Caillebotte, is the group’s most successful to date and turns a profit.
autumn 1879 – winter 1880
Printmaking in Degas’s studio
Degas introduces Mary to etching: he owns a small printing press, and by day she works in his studio with his tools and press while in the evening she makes studies for the next day’s plate. It is when the two work most closely together, on a planned journal of prints.
April 1880
Degas withdraws from the prints journal
Degas abruptly withdraws from their planned prints journal and the project folds; Mary, who had worked hard on “In the Opera Box” in an edition of fifty impressions, is piqued. Her warm feelings for Degas last all her life, but she never again works with him so closely.
1880–1881
The Impressionist exhibitions of 1880 and 1881
Mary takes part in the next two Impressionist exhibitions and remains an active member of the circle until 1886. The only American officially associated with the group, she would go on to exhibit in half of its later shows.
1882
Death of her sister Lydia
Mary gives up painting to nurse her mother and her sister Lydia, who fell ill after the move to Paris in 1877. In 1882 Lydia dies, while her mother recovers.
1883
Adviser to the Havemeyer family
Mary’s friend Louisine Elder marries Harry Havemeyer, and with Mary as adviser the couple begin collecting the Impressionists on a grand scale. Much of their vast collection is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
