Site Index ll Nichols Home Page
Cassatt's Lost Mural--continued
Variations on Cassatt's Modern
Woman Motif
Women Plucking
the Fruits of Knowledge
Women Playing the Banjo
The Contemplative Woman
Cassatt as Post-Modernist?
Cassatt Links
Women Plucking the
Fruits of Knowledge
|
The Kitchen Garden,
1893 |
Young Women Picking Fruit |
Baby Reaching for Fruit
or here |
"Music" in the right panel of the mural was represented by a woman playing a banjo, the popularity of which in the 1890s probably gave a very contemporary edge to the image, especially when compared to centuries of classical lyres or harps held by goddess-like "musica" figures. The blue modeling of the flesh tones in the banjo pastel on the right may give us some idea of what the mural critics meant by describing Cassatt's colors as vivid or even too intense. As even a recent sympathetic scholar has noted about the banjo pastel, "the color is so intense as to be shocking in its departure from literal realism."
The Banjo Lesson 1893 |
The Banjo Lesson |
Study for The Banjo Lesson ("The Two Sisters"), c. 1894
Pastel on tan wove pumice paper, mounted on cardboard.
The zinnia oil painting on the left is evidently a development of her mural theme (same outdoor setting, modern clothes, and powerful but homely model), but this time in a solitary and meditative mood rather than a socially festive one. However, note the same mood and gestures in the pastel on the right which places the contemplative woman in a public social setting. The pastel also exhibits Cassatt's unusual colors, with green molding of the flesh tones in this case. (Note that the concentration of the banjo woman above also fits the contemplative woman category.)
Woman with a Red Zinnia |
Clarissa Turned Right with
Her Hand |
Cassatt as Post-Modernist? --click here.
Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman--Museum of Fine Arts at Boston exhibition; take the tour here.
Thoroughly Modern Mary? --interesting commentary on the above MFA exhibition.
Cassatt--3 pages of images and a link to a biography
Mary Cassatt: The Modern Woman--biography and 7 images of well-known paintings
Mary Cassatt--commentary and links to 28 images
The Loge 1882; The Family--1886; Mrs. Robert S. Cassatt--c. 1889; Miss Mary Ellison--c. 1880.
Faces of Impressionism--review article with 5 excellent images (including Portrait of a Woman, 1872).
Mary Cassatt (Olga's Gallery)--many, many images
Breakfast in Bed--image; The Boating Party--image; Self-portrait--image.
A Musical Party --1874; Ducks --1895;
Poppies ; Summertime ; The Conversation; Mrs. Duffee Reading
Many images
Mary Cassatt: First Lady of Impressionism--biography and links to 5 images
Mary Stevenson Cassatt--Spanish image; good background on her early Spanish phase
Mary Cassatt Biography & images; see also From the Artists Studio: Unknown Prints; more prints here
Head of a Girl 1874; Caresse Maternelle, 1902
9 good paintings with biography
Mary Cassastt (WebMuseum, Paris)--excellent introduction (duplicates much of the Boston link).
Cassatt, Mary Stevenson--click on the "Image Gallery" for 99 lesser known images
[ Back ]
Some of the above information came from these sources:
Nancy Mowll Mathews, Mary Cassatt, New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1987.
Carolyn Kinder Carr and Sally "Mary Cassatt and Mary Fairchild MacMonnies: The Search for Their 1893 Murals," American Art, 18 (Winter 1994): 53-69.
Jeanne Madeline Weimann, The Fair Women, Chicago 1981.
F. Graeme Chalmers, Women in the Nineteenth Century Art World, Westport 1988.
Paul V. Galvin, World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, Library Digital History Collection, Illinois Institute of Technology.
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Text written by K. L. Nichols
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Posted: 10-30-03
