Mr. and Mrs. Cassatt Reading
c. 1882
Medium
Soft ground etching in black on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 19.7 × 31.1 cm (7 13/16 × 12 1/4 in.); Sheet: 31.7 × 45.1 cm (12 1/2 × 17 13/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
223862
Art Historical Context
Mary Cassatt’s “Mr. and Mrs. Cassatt Reading” offers an intimate glimpse into the artist’s own family life. Created around 1882, the soft-ground etching depicts her parents absorbed in books, their quiet domestic moment rendered with remarkable tenderness and economy of line. Cassatt, one of the few American artists to exhibit with the French Impressionists, frequently turned to family subjects, using everyday scenes to explore themes of concentration, companionship, and private reflection. The choice of medium is central to the work’s appeal. Soft-ground etching allowed Cassatt to achieve th...
About the Artist
Mary Cassatt
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was an American painter and printmaker who became the only American artist to exhibit with the French Impressionists. Born to a wealthy Pennsylvania family, she defied social conventions to pursue art professionally, settling permanently in Paris where Edgar Degas invited her to join the Impressionist group in 1877. Her paintings of mothers and children—rendered with Impre...