Mary Cassatt - Editions & Works on Paper New York Tuesday, April 19, 2022 | Phillips
  • Nursing, Mary Cassatt’s richly inked drypoint completed circa 1891 is a study in intimacy. By the time, what we presume is this rare impression of the first state was printed, the classic subject matter of mother and child is warmly familiar to Cassatt and her viewers. Indeed this subject matter was revisited throughout the artist’s career. We see it in her paintings, drawings and here through the artist’s adept handling of drypoint.  It was common for the sitter’s of her works to be her family, friends and those closest to her. This intimacy appears to begin with the artist and subject but then extends to the mother and child only to invite us the viewers in through the closely cropped frame of the plates edges. Perhaps we are privileged to much access as we witness the woman’s tired gaze as she absent mindedly plays with the infant’s foot.

    • Provenance

      Private Collection, New England

    • Literature

      see Adelyn Breeskin 135

    • Catalogue Essay

      A copy of the second state is in the Wallach Collection at the New York Public Library and another state between the second and third (not described by Breeskin) is in the Library of Congress.

108

Nursing (see B. 135 )

1890
Drypoint in dark brown, with significant burr and selective wiping, on Arches laid paper, with margins.
I. 8 5/8 x 7 1/8 in. (21.9 x 18.1 cm)
S. 10 3/4 x 8 5/8 in. (27.3 x 21.9 cm)

Signed and inscribed 'etat épreuve unique' in pencil, presumably a rare impression of the first state (of four) states, unframed.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$4,000 - 6,000 

Sold for $5,670

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Editions & Works on Paper

New York Auction 19 - 21 April 2022