One of Mary Cassatt’s numerous images exploring the relationship between mothers and children, this etching reveals the artist’s equal facility with the drypoint process as well as with her traditional pastels. One of the members of the impressionists, Cassatt was a pioneer in adopting many of the stylistic innovations of Japanese prints, such as the minimalism of this etching’s composition.

Excerpt from

William Keyse Rudolph, DMA Label copy (1976.64.FA), July 2005.

• The Great Wave: The Influence of Japanese Woodcuts on French Prints
  Read Colta Feller Ives' 1974 exhibition catalogue about the profound impact Japanese art had on artists working in France in the mid-19th century.
• Mary Cassatt: A Woman's World (Antiques & Fine Art)
  Read William H. Gerdts' informative review of the 2008 exhibition, Mary Cassatt: Prints and Drawings from the Collections of Ambroise Vollard (2008, Adelson Galleries, New York, NY).