Portrait of a Lady

Mary Cassatt, c. 1887

Shown from the lap up, an older woman with pale, slightly sagging skin and frosty gray hair sits facing us in this loosely painted vertical portrait. Her body is angled very slightly to our right, and she rests one elbow across the back of the chair in which she sits. She has a round face with large, dark blue eyes, and she smiles. Her gray hair is pulled back under a black hat, which is topped with pale pink flowers. She wears a black coat over a high-necked, hunter-green garment and nickel-gray gloves. The chair is painted loosely with a red and green floral pattern against a white background, and the space behind the woman is parchment white.
Artist
Mary Cassatt
Date
c. 1887
Type
Painting
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
72.9 × 60.3 cm
Collection
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Licence
Public domain, CC0

Image description

Shown from the lap up, an older woman with pale, slightly sagging skin and frosty gray hair sits facing us in this loosely painted vertical portrait. Her body is angled very slightly to our right, and she rests one elbow across the back of the chair in which she sits. She has a round face with large, dark blue eyes, and she smiles. Her gray hair is pulled back under a black hat, which is topped with pale pink flowers. She wears a black coat over a high-necked, hunter-green garment and nickel-gray gloves. The chair is painted loosely with a red and green floral pattern against a white background, and the space behind the woman is parchment white.

Mary Cassatt