The Caress
1902
Medium
Painting
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of William T. Evans
Accession Number
1911.2.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
Mary Cassatt's *The Caress* (1902) captures an intimate moment of tenderness between a woman and a child, themes central to the artist's oeuvre. As a leading American Impressionist, Cassatt specialized in domestic scenes featuring mothers and children, drawing from her life in Paris where she immersed herself in the avant-garde circle of Edgar Degas and other innovators. This oil painting exemplifies her mastery of soft, luminous brushwork and natural light, evoking quiet emotional bonds that challenged 19th-century conventions of portraiture by elevating everyday affection to high art. Creat...
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...