Drypoint, circa 1905. 406x287 mm; 16 1/8x11 3/8 inches, full margins. Signed in pencil, lower right. Ex-collection the estate of J. Harris Whittemore, Naugatuck, Connecticut; Connor Contemporary, Washington, DC; Alan Hillburg, Alexandria, Virginia; and private collection. Van Der Ley watermark. A superb, richly-inked impression of this extremely scarce print.
Cassatt (1844–1926) made a painting of this subject, completed around 1899 in Paris (and bought by tyhe prominent Parisian art dealer Durand-Ruel), which is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer). This work has been called at times The Florentine Madonna because the pose is similar to a typical Italian Madonna and Child. The identity of the sitters is not known, although the child's name was "Jules" and he appears in other works by Cassatt from around this same time.
Born in Philadelphia into a well-to-do family, Cassatt spent most of her adult life in Europe (Paris mainly) and, along with Berthe Morisot, went on to become one of the most celebrated female Impressionist artists. Edgar Degas served as her artistic mentor for some time and in 1876 invited her to show in the next Impressionist exhibition, insisting that, "Most women paint like they are trimming hats, (but) not you."
Cassatt and Degas initially has a close friendship (though they later had a falling out, not atypical of Degas' relationships) and it was under Degas' guidance that Cassatt developed her techniques in pastels and printmaking. Cassatt made 220 etchings, drypoints and aquatints between the mid-1870s and early 1900s. Most of her prints were pulled in editions of 25 or fewer, rarely was any of her printed oeuvre published. Breeskin 205.
