Peasant Mother and Child (B. 159; M. and S. 17)

Details

MARY CASSATT
Peasant Mother and Child (B. 159; M. and S. 17)
drypoint and aquatint in colors, with touches of hand-coloring, circa 1894, on laid paper, watermark Plancher Bas, a fine, carefully inked impression, the colors rich, tenth (final) state, signed in pencil and with the artist's blue monogram stamp (L. 604), from the proposed edition of about 50, with wide margins, deckled along the vertical edges, the palest foxing in the margins, otherwise generally in very good condition, framed
P. 11 3/4 x 9 1/2in. (298 x 241mm.)

Lot Essay

Peasant Mother and Child was probably the last color print Cassatt made before moving her press from her Paris studio to a house in the French countryside. A year later, her dealers Durand-Ruel included an impression in their first American exhibition of her work. A comparison of different proofs of Peasant Mother and Child demonstrates the artist's interest in various inkings of this image--particularly in the degree to which she completes the area along the bottom of the mother's skirt (cf. Christie's New York, 29 April 1996, lot 84).