The Letter
1890–91
Medium
Color aquatint and drypoint on off-white laid paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 34.5 × 21.1 cm (13 5/8 × 8 5/16 in.); Sheet: 43.7 × 29.7 cm (17 1/4 × 11 3/4 in.)
Classification
drypoint
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
13508
Art Historical Context
Mary Cassatt's *The Letter* (1890–91), a delicate color aquatint andpoint on off-white laid, captures an intimate moment in the artist's signature style. Measuring 34.5 × 21.1 cm for the image, this print from the Art Institute of Chicago Prints and Drawings collection exemplifies Cassatt's fascination with everyday domestic life, often centering women in quiet, personal activities. As an American Impressionist who lived and worked in Paris, Cassatt was a trailazing female artist in a male-dominated field. She exhibited with the Impressionists and, in the early 1890s, immersed herself in prin...
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...