Baby and Nurse Reclining
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), Baby and Nurse Reclining, drypoint, c. 1886, signed in pencil with initials lower right. Reference: Breeskin 91, only state. On Britannia Lifeline paper, in very good condition, with irregular margins, a few tiny foxmarks, some nicks and small tears left margin edge, remains of prior hinging right edge verso, 7 3/4 x 5 7/8 inches, the sheet 13 x 8 inches.
Provenance: Robert Hartshorne, New York (Lugt 2215b).
A fine atmospheric impression, printed with a substantial layering of plate tone.
Impressions of Baby and Nurse Reclining are rare; indeed we know of no other impressions to appear on the art market over the past 25 years.
Mary Cassatt regarded printmaking as a developmental activity, a way to grow as an artist, much in line with her colleague Edgar Degas. On the medium of drypoint, she said: “That is what teaches one to draw.” Prints such as Baby and Nurse Reclining – made a few years before the color aquatints that have become so popular – were not editioned but created in only a few impressions, and printed personally by Cassatt.