Mary Cassatt - Ellen Mary Cassatt In A White Coal 1896
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Ellen Mary Cassatt In A White Coal 1896
81x60cm oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, United States
The image is only being used for informational and educational purposes
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From Museum of Fine Arts Boston:
Cassatt painted Ellen Mary in a White Coat when she was at the height of her powers. She had studied Spanish painting, especially Velázquez’s pictures of children of the royal Spanish family—like Ellen Mary, small children trapped in elaborate costumes. She was a friend of Edgar Degas and had seen firsthand his manipulation of space and his ability to use the background of a portrait to comment on the sitter. In addition, the flat patterns in this painting reflect Cassatt’s interest in Japanese woodblock prints, which she had enthusiastically collected and studied. Having absorbed these various influences, she applied her own sensitive appreciation of childhood to create a perceptive and unsentimental portrait of her niece. Aunt and niece grew especially close, and when Cassatt died, she left Beaufresne to Ellen Mary.