Mary CassattAmerican, 1844–1926The Mirror
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Minneapolis Institute of Art
Minneapolis, 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
When artist Edgar Degas died in 1917, more than ninety prints by Mary Cassatt were discovered in his studio. Cassatt relied on her friend Degas for guidance on aquatint and probably called on artist Marcellin Desboutin to help perfect her drypoint technique. Her disciplined touch is evident in The Mirror, which she may have printed on the press in her apartment-studio in Paris. Cassatt exhibited this print and eleven others at the Durand-Ruel gallery in Paris. Critic Edmond de Goncourt was unimpressed. The admiration expressed in all the papers for Mlle Cassatt's work is enough to make you die of laughter, he wrote.
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Particulars
- Accession number
- P.4, 959
In the catalog
Sources
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
- Image: Minneapolis Institute of Art — public domain
Meanwhile, in the life of Mary Cassatt
The whole life1890s
Mentor to young Americans
The 1890s are the busiest and most creative period of Mary’s life: young American artists seek her advice and support, and she introduces Lucy A. Bacon to Camille Pissarro.
1891
Bertha Palmer commissions a mural
Chicago socialite Bertha Palmer asks Mary to paint a 12 × 58 ft mural on “Modern Woman” for the Women’s Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. Palmer thought Cassatt an American treasure and could think of no one better.
1891
Colour prints inspired by Japanese woodcuts
Mary exhibits a series of highly original colour drypoints and aquatints, among them “Woman Bathing” and “The Coiffure”, inspired by the Japanese masters shown in Paris the year before. She was drawn to the simplicity and clarity of Japanese design and its skilful use of blocks of colour.
