Feeding the Ducks
Artist: Mary Cassatt (American, 1844-1926)
Date: 1895
Dimensions:
sheet: 15 1/4 x 19 5/8 in. (38.7 x 49.8 cm);
Plate: 11 5/8 x 15 1/2 in. (29.5 x 39.3 cm)
Medium: Drypoint, Aquatint and softground etching, printed in colors
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: Museum Purchase
Object number: 1945.40
Label Text:American artist Mary Cassatt created her first color etchings spurred by an 1890 exhibition of Japanese prints. She made Feeding the Ducks a few years later, following her purchase of a country house north of Paris. Setting up her printing press in a studio at the edge of a long pool, she posed her models in a small boat. She would explore repeatedly the image of the modern mother and child;, here two fashionably dressed women with a child form a vision of collaborative mothering. Together the women seem to guide the child toward an understanding of kindness, generosity, and nurturing. Creating luminously-colored, wash-like effects, Cassatt imparts a visual richness and emotional warmth to the scene.
Not on view
In Collection(s)