Maternal Caress (1890–91): Artwork and History

Maternal Caress (1890–91) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Mary Cassatt (American, 1844-1926) printed with Leroy (French, active 1876-1900).

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Mary Cassatt began a series of ten color prints in 1890 that were intended for an 1891 exhibition at the influential Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris. These prints exemplify the influence of Japanese color woodblock printmaking on her choice of composition, subject matter, and technique. In Maternal Caress, Cassatt portrayed a woman embracing her infant child. She rendered the figures and furniture as simplified, flattened shapes to allow the decorative elements—such as the floral patterns on the chair and wallpaper—and the limited color palette to predominate and set the warm mood of the scene.

Object facts

• Title: Maternal Caress
• Date: 1890–91
• Artist attribution: Mary Cassatt (American, 1844-1926) printed with Leroy (French, active 1876-1900)
• Place of origin: United States
• Medium: Color aquatint and drypoint, with softground, on ivory laid paper
• Dimensions: Image/plate: 36.8 × 26.8 cm (14 1/2 × 10 9/16 in.); Sheet: 43.2 × 30.1 cm (17 1/16 × 11 7/8 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1932.1288

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.