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Date: Executed in 1890.

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Description: MATHILDE HOLDING A BABY WHO REACHES OUT TO RIGHT
signed Mary Cassatt, l.r.

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Medium: pastel on paper

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Dimensions: 28 3/4 by 23 3/4 in. (73 by 60.3 cm)

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Provenance: Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1919
Durand-Ruel, New York, April 1920
Private collection, Switzerland, 1948
International Galleries, Chicago, 1964
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1964

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Exhibited: Chicago, Illinois, The Art Institute of Chicago, Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman, October 1998-January 1999, no. 51, illustrated in color p. 272

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Published: Adelyn Dohme Breeskin, Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oils, Pastels, Watercolors, and Drawings, Washington, D.C., 1970, no. 187, p. 98, illustrated

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Notes:

Executed in 1890, Mathilde Holding a Baby Reaching Right, is one of only a few works depicting Mary Cassatt's loyal maid, Mathilde Valet. By that time, the French Impressionists had adopted the theme of maternal devotion, a subject antithetical to their academic contemporaries. A particular, calm elegance distinguished Cassatt's depiction of mother and child. Critics singled out her treatment of the subject in the six works she submitted to the sixth Impressionist exhibition in 1881 for special praise.

Cassatt's full shift to the mother and child subject around 1890 coincided with her embrace of the pastel medium, introduced to her by her colleague Edgar Degas. She wrote to her good friend, Louisine Havemeyer, around 1915, "How well I remember nearly forty years ago seeing for the first time (Edgar) Degas's pastels in the window of a picture dealer in the Boulevard Haussman. I would go there and flatten my nose against that window and absorb all I could of his art. It changed my life. I saw art then as I wanted to see it" (Sixteen to Sixty, 1961, p. 275). Degas offered Cassatt constructive criticism and his continual efforts to interest her in new techniques had a lasting effect on Cassatt's mature style. Cassatt also worked alongside Camille Pissarro, once proclaiming that he was such an inspiring artist that he "could have taught stones to draw correctly". The three artists: Cassatt, Degas and Pissarro already had worked together on their project for Le Jour et la Nuit publication in 1879. Among the Impressionists, Degas and Pissaro best understood her talent and importance. In addition to being a friend, colleague and collaborator with the two artists, Cassatt also became their artistic rival.

Pastel allowed Cassatt to demonstrate her skills as an accomplished draftsman and colorist. In Mathilde Holding a Baby, she deftly renders the flesh tones with layered pigments to create volume. The range of pinks and peaches of the flesh are highlighted by the surrounding opulent hues of blue, green and yellow in the background, executed with energetic, slashing strokes. Both subjects are individually engaged; Mathilde looks off in the distance while the curious baby reaches out for some enticing distraction to the right. As Griselda Pollock writes, "There was a considerable artistic challenge in painting the infant body, its fleshiness and singular anatomy, its characteristic gestures and non-adult poses, as artistically fascinating as the dancer's athleticism was to Degas" (Mary Cassatt, Painter of Modern Women, 1998, pp. 194-195).

Mathilde Valet, remained in Cassatt's employ for over forty years. Upon the artist's death in 1926, she wrote to Louisine Havemeyer, "I am sure, in spite of the fact that she had many friends, nobody in the world loved her as Madame [Louisine] and I have loved her, and she knew it well" (Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman, p. 352).