Mary Cassatt at the Louvre: The Etruscan Gallery

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Mary Cassatt at the Louvre: The Etruscan Gallery

Artist Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917)

Date1879-1880

Dimensionsimage: 10 1/2 x 9 3/16 in. (26.7 x 23.3 cm)

MediumMixed intaglio (including softground etching, line etching, drypoint, and aquatint)

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineFrederick B. and Kate L. Shoemaker Fund

Object number

1955.22

Not on View

Label TextMary Cassatt, an American artist living in France, contemplates the Sarcophagus of the Spouses in the Etruscan Gallery of the Louvre. She is absorbed in the art around her, and neither the viewer nor the seated figure of Lydia, her sister, can see her face. Degas and his colleagues Bracquemond, Pissarro, and Cassatt avidly experimented with printmaking techniques at this time. All four were involved in an unrealized project to launch a journal of prints to be called Le Jour et la Nuit (Day and Night), for which this work was intended. Evidence of Degas’ love of Japanese prints is seen here in the flattened shapes and in Cassatt’s long, narrow silhouette. The antiquities department in the Musée du Louvre (which opened in 1793) was formed around the former French royal collections and has been added to continually for the enjoyment of visitors and scholars. Here we see noted American painter Mary Cassatt (1844–1926), , standing, and her sister Lydia (1837–1882) spending time in the Louvre’s Etruscan Gallery, enjoying one of its greatest works of art: the Sarcophagus of the Spouses from about 520 BCE.Published ReferencesTOLEDO MUSEUM NEWS, New Series, Vol. 5, No. 2, Summer 1962, (also published as An Introduction to Prints) repr. p. 41, details, p. 28. Meyer, Susan E., Mary Cassatt, New York, 1990, repr.p. 42. Huttinger, Eduard, Degas, New York, 1988, repr. p. 25Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Prints as Portraits, Dec. 1959-Feb. 1960.

Toledo Museum of Art, Recent Acquisitions: Late 19th Century French Prints, Mar. 21-June 19, 1983. Detroit Institute of Art, Graphic Arts, Dec. 1962-Jan. 1963. Dayton Art Institute, Ink Under Pressure, 1984, no. 26, p. 15, repr. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Philadelphia Museum of Art; London, Hayward Gallery, Edgar Degas: the painter as printmaker, 1984-1985, no. 51bV, p. 168-74, repr. p. 179. Toledo Museum of Art, Patterns for the Eye: Graphic Arts from the Collection, Jan. 6-Mar. 23, 1997. Toledo Museum of Art, The French Connection: French Prints from the Toledo Museum of Art, Feb. 18- May 15, 2005. Toledo Museum of Art, Paris: City of Art, Nov. 6, 2009 - Mar. 14, 2010 (no cat.). Toledo Museum of Art, Strong Sensations: Impressionism and Symbolist Works on Paper, 1860-1900, Apr. 23-Jun. 20, 2010 (no cat.).

Toledo Museum of Art, Prints and Authors from the Time of Manet, September 13, 2012-January 13, 2013.

Toledo Museum of Art, Fun & Games: The Pursuit of Leisure, Jun. 27-Sept. 21, 2014.

Toledo Museum of Art, Looks Good on Paper: Masterworks and Favorites, Oct. 10, 2014-Jan. 11, 2015.