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Provenance: Ambroise Vollard (most probably acquired directly from the artist herself*), and subsequently Henri M. Petiet
This intimist print is one of
Mary Cassatt's poignant representations of motherhood, a theme she took
up almost obsessively after the death of Lydia; it should be noted too
that neither of the sisters ever married or had children. Adelyne
Breeskin (Mary Cassatt, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Graphic Work,
Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 1979, p.18)
identified this theme as one of Mary Cassatt's most significant
achievements:
"Her
incomparable renderings of the mother and child theme will probably
always be considered her main contribuution to the history of
art...
This is indeed an original art, since no woman had ever
previously recorded it and no man ever could."
Achille Segard also wrote
to this effect as of 1913, and his words are still clearly
pertinent: see
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k111711k/f4.item
The present impression of this print requires some study, insofar as it does not correspond to any of the known states.**
The fourth state (right),
now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art*** (which
Adeline
Breeskin also used to illustrate the catalogue raisonné) shows a more
variegated, almost blotchy, background as compared to the present
impression, though it is unclear if this is a result of rebiting the
aquatint or selective wiping by the artist.
The fifth state (the final state, below,
an impression of which we have only been able to identify from a
Christie's sale**** on October 30, 2007) has, as Breeskin described it, "the background is greatly toned
down, baby's face without shading." There also seems to be an overall softening of the shaded areas. Our
impression still has the fine shading around the baby's right cheek,
whereas other features visible on the child in the fourth state
impression, notably the wide left eybrow,the double inner contour
of his lower right leg, or the awkward lines on the inner right thigh,
have been burnished down.
Furthermore, there appears to be finer highlighting in the mother's
hair (much closer in values to the second state impression in San Francisco, cf. infra),
her ear seems to have been tonally heightened (some of which may simply
be selective inking and wiping), and the concave
line that is clearly visible in our impression, marking her sleeve from
her left shoulder down to the child's shoulder, has been effaced.
Lastly, three diagonal pleats appear to have been added at the waist in the mother's dress.
In conclusion, the present impression is clearly a working proof (as
may also be ascertained by the diagonal slipped strokes across the mother's
forward shoulder, as well as the child's left shoulder, which were also burnished out), with selective wiping to effect.
As there was never an identifiable edition, even of the final state,
the present impression of an undescribed state 4b is of the utmost
rarity.
* In the catalogue Mary Cassatt: Prints and Drawings from the Artist's Studio (Adelson et al., Princeton University Press, Princeton New Jersey, 2000), Warren Adelson discusses (Foreword, pp.
9-11) Ambroise Vollard's acquisition of the Artist's Studio prints directly from Mary Cassatt between 1904
and 1906, and which he kept for years until his untimely death.
** Other earlier states of interest are:
- 1st state: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/59a3aed0-417a-0130-dd9c-58d385a7b928
- 2nd state (similarly monogrammed): https://art.famsf.org/mary-cassatt/bill-lying-his-mothers-lap-l431966
*** See https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/377393
**** See https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-4983421
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