Feeding the Ducks

Cassatt created Feeding the Ducks at Chateau Mesnil-Beaufresne, which was located approximately fifty miles northwest of Paris. According to her patron Louisine Havemeyer, Cassatt installed a printing press in a pavilion near the pond on the grounds, where she would work on her prints, paintings and pastels, observing her visitors as they enjoyed boating on the pond. For Feeding the Ducks she inked and wiped her etching plates individually, adding monotype colour to the ducks and reflections in the water; an experimental approach which gave each impression its own distinctive qualities.

Shapiro knew of only 13 impressions of this print across all four states.