De liefkozing

About this artwork

Moeder met kind zittend op haar schoot, het kind raakt met zijn linkerhand het gezicht van de vrouw.

Art Historical Context

Mary Cassatt’s “De Liefkozing” (The Caress), created in 1891, portrays a quiet moment of maternal affection. A mother holds her child on her lap while the youngster reaches up to touch her face, a simple gesture that conveys trust and tenderness. Cassatt, an American painter and printmaker closely associated with the Impressionists in France, repeatedly returned to such intimate domestic scenes, elevating the everyday lives of women and children to subjects worthy of serious art. The work is executed in drypoint, a technique in which the artist scratches directly into a metal plate, producing...

About the Artist

Mary Cassatt

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was an American painter and printmaker who became the only American artist to exhibit with the French Impressionists. Born to a wealthy Pennsylvania family, she defied social conventions to pursue art professionally, settling permanently in Paris where Edgar Degas invited her to join the Impressionist group in 1877. Her paintings of mothers and children—rendered with Impre...