In the Omnibus (1890–91): Art, History and Details

In the Omnibus (1890–91) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Mary Cassatt (American, 1844–1926).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This print belongs to a series of color etchings created by Mary Cassatt between 1890 and 1891. Each was influenced by the artist's study of Japanese woodblock prints, especially in their use of flat planes of color and domestic subject matter. In the scene depicted here, a middle-class woman accompanies her nursemaid and child on errands throughout Paris. The group rides in an omnibus, a form of public transportation where different genders and classes could intermingle. While the nanny's attention stays focused on her young charge, the female subject appears distracted, gazing toward the world beyond.

Object facts

• Title: In the Omnibus
• Date: 1890–91
• Creator attribution: Mary Cassatt (American, 1844–1926)
• Culture: France
• Type: Print
• Technique: color drypoint and aquatint
• Dimensions: Platemark: 36.6 x 26.8 cm (14 7/16 x 10 9/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Drypoint
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1941.71

A detail from the museum

The artist Camille Pissarro described the series of prints to which this work belongs as "admirable, as beautiful as Japanese work," praising Cassatt's translation of Ukiyo-e woodblocks.

Collection credit

Bequest of Charles T. Brooks

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lemonedes, Heather. "The Feminine Ideal." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 52, no. 5 (September/October 2012): 4-6.
• Lees, Sarah and Richard R. Brettell. Innovative Impressions: Prints by Cassatt, Degas, and Pissarro. Exh. Cat. Tulsa, OK: Philbrook Museum of Art, 2018
• Dunn, Ashley. "Notes: Cassatt, Degas, and Pissarro." Print Quarterly 36, no. 4 (December 2019): 452-454.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.