Description:

Children Playing with a Cat Oil on canvas, 32" x 39 1⁄2" Signed and dated 1908 $5,000,000. - 6,000,000.While this piece adheres to many of the thematic and compositional elements for which Cassatt became known and adored, in the present work Cassatt attempted one of her more complex and compelling paintings on record. "Cassatt conferred on the feminine a greater degree of realism, for she subtly represented the structures of the world of women, the artifice and the process by which the child was made the feminine woman," (Mary Cassatt, New York, 1980, p. 23). In this work, the common experience of a child interacting with a pet, grounds the work in a way that makes it accessible to all viewers. Careful to adhere to a realistic depiction of this intimate moment, each figure in the composition is separately engaged while sharing a tender moment.Cassatt's focus on color in the present painting demonstrates a new direction for the artist. Nancy Mowll Mathews comments: "Rather than finding all the colors of the spectrum within a few square inches of flesh, we find them in discrete areas on the canvas. From the red-blue of the vase on the mantel to the blue-green of the child's dress, to the yellow of the mother's dress and its yellow-orange accents, and finally to the red of the chairback behind her, Cassatt has arranged the colors in the order in which they would appear on a color chart. It is surprising to find this kind of color experimentation in Cassatt's work at this time. It hints not only at an awareness of current Divisionist color theories being proposed by Matisse and other radical artists but also at an interest, albeit restrained, in putting them into practice. Despite her well-known disdain for Matisse's work and his followers, Cassatt, like most older artists in Paris during this tumultuous decade, could not shut out his influence entirely" (Mary Cassatt, New York, 1987, p. 135).

  • Dimensions: 32 x 39 1/2
  • Medium: Oil on canvas

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November 20, 2013 4:00 PM EST
Lexington, KY, US

Cross Gate Gallery

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