Baby Charles
Classification
Drawing
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Foundation, 1966
Accession Number
66.846
About this artwork
The Artist; JH purchased from Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York 1959
Art Historical Context
Mary Cassatt’s “Baby Charles,” created around 1900, captures the tender intimacy that defined much of her later career. An American artist who spent most of her adult life in France, Cassatt became one of the few women to exhibit with the Impressionists. Her drawings and prints frequently explored the quiet bonds between mothers and children, offering a modern, empathetic view of domestic life at a time when such subjects were often dismissed as sentimental. Classified simply as a drawing, the work reflects Cassatt’s interest in line and form rather than elaborate finish. By the turn of the c...