Mary Cassatt — Mother's Kiss

A mother bending to a naked child, in a dress scattered with small red flowers.

The document

The mother leans down and the child reaches up, and the two heads meet at the centre of the sheet. Her dress is a pale green scattered with small red flowers that runs across the whole lower half. The background is a flat blue with no depth in it. The Art Institute of Chicago catalogues its impression of this plate under the title After the Bath; it carries the same catalogue raisonné number as the sheets held elsewhere as Mother's Kiss, and we use the catalogue raisonné title.

The pencil at the bottom. Under the plate mark, in Cassatt's own hand: Imprimée par l'artiste et M. Leroy — Mary Cassatt — (25 épreuves). Printed by the artist and M. Leroy, twenty-five impressions. The Japanese sheets she had been studying carried the printer's name beside the artist's, and she did the same. It is reproduced here because it is part of the object.

About the artist

Mary Cassatt (1844–1926) was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, and spent her working life in France. She was the only American invited to exhibit with the Impressionists. In April 1890 she saw an exhibition of 725 Japanese prints at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, wrote to Berthe Morisot telling her not to miss it, and spent the following year teaching herself to do in copper what she had seen done in woodblock. She printed the results herself, at the press, alongside a professional printer, and signed each sheet in pencil.

The print

Printed to order and made to last. Choose Museum Matte (heavyweight matte art paper) or Fine Art Giclée (Hahnemühle cotton paper — the archival standard). The Métrica museum caption — artist, title, date and source — is printed as part of the piece, set in our house type. Free US shipping on orders over $75.

Mary Cassatt, Mother's Kiss, colour aquatint and drypoint, 1890–91. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1932.1286. Public domain.