Maternal Caress

Mary Cassatt, 1890–1891

We look slightly down onto a young woman sitting in an upholstered chair and tightly hugging a nude, blond child in this vertical, colored print. Both have pale, peach-toned skin. The woman’s black hair is pulled back though a couple tendrils curl on her forehead. Her eyes are downcast and her pink lips parted. She wears a long, cream-white dress dotted with blush-pink, petal-like forms. One arm is under the baby’s chubby bottom and the other braces the child behind the shoulders. The baby wraps their arms around the woman’s neck so they are cheek to cheek. The chair sits in front of a bed with a boxy frame and a pillowy white mattress. The upholstery on the woman’s chair and the wallpaper behind her are patterned with dusky rose-pink flowers and vines against butter yellow. The floor is coral orange. A mark with an oval, or a mirrored C, over an uppercase M, is stamped in royal blue at the bottom center of the print.
Artist
Mary Cassatt
Date
1890–1891
Type
Print
Medium
color drypoint, softground etching, and aquatint
Dimensions
36.83 × 26.83 cm
Collection
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Licence
Public domain, CC0

Image description

We look slightly down onto a young woman sitting in an upholstered chair and tightly hugging a nude, blond child in this vertical, colored print. Both have pale, peach-toned skin. The woman’s black hair is pulled back though a couple tendrils curl on her forehead. Her eyes are downcast and her pink lips parted. She wears a long, cream-white dress dotted with blush-pink, petal-like forms. One arm is under the baby’s chubby bottom and the other braces the child behind the shoulders. The baby wraps their arms around the woman’s neck so they are cheek to cheek. The chair sits in front of a bed with a boxy frame and a pillowy white mattress. The upholstery on the woman’s chair and the wallpaper behind her are patterned with dusky rose-pink flowers and vines against butter yellow. The floor is coral orange. A mark with an oval, or a mirrored C, over an uppercase M, is stamped in royal blue at the bottom center of the print.

Mary Cassatt