Mary Cassatt at the Louvre: The Paintings Gallery
Medium
Pastel, over etching, aquatint, drypoint, and crayon électrique on tan wove paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 30.5 × 12.7 cm (12 1/16 × 5 in.); Sheet: 31.3 × 13.7 cm (12 3/8 × 5 7/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
111902
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Edgar Degas enjoyed a close friendship with fellow Impressionist Mary Cassatt. To produce this work, he first made an etching of his friend and her sister, Lydia, then covered the sheet with pastel. Degas depicted Mary with her back to the viewer, balancing in a confident pose; her rigid right arm and umbrella move diagonally across the bottom half of the sheet. This air of assurance contrasts with the attitude of Lydia, who is seated and looks up timidly at the art from a guidebook.
About the Artist
Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas · 1834–1917
Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas, born on July 19, 1834, in Paris to a prosperous banking family, was the eldest of five children. His mother, Célestine Musson, a Creole from New Orleans whose father Germain Musson had roots in Haiti, died when Degas was thirteen, leaving his father Augustin and unmarried uncles to guide him. Educated at the elite Lycée Louis-le-Grand, where he earned a baccalauréat in...