The Letter
Maker and role
Artist: Mary Cassatt, American, 1844-1926
Year
ca. 1891
See full details
Object detail
Media/Materials
Drypoint and aquatint
Measurements
plate, 13 5/8 x 8 7/8in (34.6 x 22.5cm)
sheet, 17 1/8 x 12in (43.5 x 30.5cm)
sheet, 17 1/8 x 12in (43.5 x 30.5cm)
Credit line
Gift of Margaret Batts Tobin
Accession number
1978.25
Object type
Department
Location
Further information
The McNay is one of only a handful of museums in the world to have a complete set of the ten color aquatints Mary Cassatt created in Paris in the winter of 1890-91. The whole suite is a great monument to Japan's influence on Western art and printmaking, Japonisme.
The most famous image of the suite is The Letter in which Cassatt combines the color palette of Japanese woodblock prints - brown and blue, non-Western perspective (notice how the desktop goes off at an odd angle), overall patterning that flattens the image, and a composition that compresses the whole scene into a single picture plane.
The most famous image of the suite is The Letter in which Cassatt combines the color palette of Japanese woodblock prints - brown and blue, non-Western perspective (notice how the desktop goes off at an odd angle), overall patterning that flattens the image, and a composition that compresses the whole scene into a single picture plane.
Documentation
Mary Cassatt: The Color Prints; Nancy Mathews, Barbara Stern Shapiro; 1989; 8
Modern Art at the McNay: A Brief History and Pictorial Survey of the Collection; William J. Chiego; 2001; p. 42
Modern Art at the McNay: A Brief History and Pictorial Survey of the Collection; William J. Chiego; 2001; p. 42
Signature & date
Signed l.r.: Mary Cassatt
Inscribed l.r.: Edition de 25 imprime par l'artiste et M. Leroy
Inscribed l.r.: Edition de 25 imprime par l'artiste et M. Leroy
Subject period
Docent information sheet
Public comments
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