Woman with a Fan
c. 1878/1879
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 85.5 x 65.1 cm (33 11/16 x 25 5/8 in.) framed: 108.6 x 88.9 cm (42 3/4 x 35 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CF
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Chester Dale Collection
Accession Number
1963.10.95
Art Historical Context
Mary Cassatt’s *Woman with a Fan* (c. 1878/1879) captures a moment of quiet elegance during the height of the Impressionist movement. An American artist who settled in Paris, Cassatt exhibited alongside Monet, Degas, and Renoir, bringing a distinctive focus on women’s private lives to the group’s explorations of modern experience. Painted in oil on canvas, the work uses the medium’s rich texture and luminous color to suggest both the sitter’s poised demeanor and the soft play of light across fabric and skin. The composition reflects Cassatt’s interest in contemporary femininity and the subtle...
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...