CALL NUMBER:FP - XIX - C343, No. 157 (B Size) P&P
Exhibition Sections:Top Treasures - Memory - Reason - Imagination
Mary Cassatt
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926)
Under the Horse Chestnut Tree
Drypoint and aquatint in color, ca. 1896
Prints & Photographs Division
Pennell Fund purchase (139.10) / Mary Cassatt has long been celebrated as the only American artist among the core group of French Impressionists, and one of the rare women in that movement. Under the thrall of Japanese woodcuts she had seen at the École des Beaux-Arts, Cassatt embarked on a set of experimental color intaglio prints that are considered among the finest of her works in any medium. The stylistic idiom of Japonisme is underscored here by the flattened modeling, bold outlining, and the oblique perspective of her composition.
The print Gathering Fruit by Impressionist Mary Cassatt is one of a series of works by the artist that relates closely to her commissioned mural for the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 on the theme of the "Modern Woman." The original mural (which now survives only in photographic reproductions) was composed of three allegorical scenes entitled: "Arts, Music, Dancing;" "Young Women Plucking the Fruits of Knowledge or Science;" and "Young Girls Pursuing Fame." Gathering Fruit is based on the mural's central panel showing women and young girls harvesting fruit in an orchard--a symbolic gathering and sharing of the "fruits of knowledge."
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TITLE:Gathering fruit / Mary Cassatt.
CALL NUMBER:FP - XIX - C343, no. 157 (B size) [P&P]
REPRODUCTION NUMBER:LC-USZC4-1577 (color film copy transparency)
LC-USZC2-53 (color film copy slide)
LC-USZ62-44176 (b&w film copy neg.)
RIGHTS INFORMATION:No known restrictions on publication.
SUMMARY:Woman picking fruit from tree and handing it to a young woman holding a baby.
MEDIUM:1 print: drypoint and aquatint, hand-colored.
CREATED/PUBLISHED:[ca. 1895]
CREATOR:
Cassatt, Mary, 1844-1926, artist.
NOTES:
One of series of works related to Cassatt's mural for the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition on the theme of "Modern Woman." The original mural, which no longer exists, included a section showing women and young girls harvesting fruit in an orchard symbolizing the passing on and sharing of the "fruits of knowledge."
Artist's monogram stamp.
Signed with pencil.
Breeskin, 157, known also as L'Espalier
Published in: American women : a Library of Congress guide for the study of women's history and culture in the United States / edited by Sheridan Harvey ... [et al.]. Washington : Library of Congress, 2001, p. 210.
Exhibited: American Treasures of the Library of Congress, 2001-2002.
SUBJECTS:
Women--Education--1890-1900.
Fruit--1890-1900.
Harvesting--1890-1900.
FORMAT:
Drypoints Hand-colored 1890-1900.
REPOSITORY:Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.20540USA
DIGITAL ID:(color film copy transparency) cph 3b53079 cph.3b53079
(color film copy slide) cph 3b47968 cph.3b3b47968
(b&w film copy neg.) cph3a44410 cph.3a44410
CONTROL #:2002712195
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Mademoiselle Marcelle Lender,
en buste, 1895.
Crayon lithograph in eight colors,
14 in. x 10 1/2 in.
Prints and Photographs Division (93)
(LC-USZC4-8503)
Portrait of an Actress
French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) was a collector of Japanese prints and routinely applied the visual language of Ukiyo-e to his prints and paintings. This portrait of a nineteenth-century French actress Marcelle Lender draws on many of the conventions of Ukiyo-e actor prints--the highly stylized pose, bold colors and patterning, flattened perspective, and asymmetrical composition. The artist attended Lender's performance as the fandango-dancing Queen Galswintha at the Théâtre des Variétés nearly twenty times, making sketches for a series of paintings and prints including this one.
Mary Cassatt.
The Fitting, ca. 1893.
Color drypoint and aquatint
with monotype inking,
17 in. x 12 1/4 in.
Prints and Photographs Division (91)
(LC-USZC4-8499)
Impressionist Translation
The Fitting is from a series of ten color prints by Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), which are considered among the landmarks of the aesthetic called "Japonisme." After seeing an exhibition of Japanese prints in 1890 at the École des Beaux-Arts, Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) wrote to her friend and colleague Berthe Morisot (1841-1895): "Seriously, you must not miss that. You who want to make color prints you couldn't dream of anything more beautiful. I dream of it and don't think of anything else but color on copper. . . .You must see the Japanese--come as soon as you can."
Fashionable Beauty
The woman in the foreground of this print by Isoda Koryûsai (fl. mid-1760s to 1780s) shares the name of the famous character Ukifune from the Tale of Genji. She glances over her shoulder at two young attendants behind her. Ukiyo-e prints such as this one provided aesthetic influence for Western artists, and it is known that Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was inspired by Japanese prints (see object 91).
Isoda Koryûsai.
Ukifune of the Kanaya Quarter:
First Designs of the Young Plants
(Hinagata wakana no hatsu moyô:
Kanaya uchi Ukifune), ca. 1770s.
Color woodblock print, ôban,
15 in. x 10 in.
Prints and Photographs Division (90)
(LC-USZC4-8501)