Cleveland Museum of Art

Mary Cassatt at the Louvre: The Paintings Gallery

Edgar Degas

Date

1879–80

Medium

etching, softground etching, aquatint, and drypoint

Culture

France, 19th century

Department

Prints

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Degas and his friends Mary Cassatt and Camille Pissarro were all experimental printmakers who combined traditional printmaking techniques to create a black and white equivalent for the tonality and varied textures of paintings. They were all so involved in printmaking that in 1879–80 they planned to publish a journal, Le Jour et la nuit (Day and Night), that would contain original etchings. As a printmaker, Degas was ambivalent about when a plate was considered finished. What attracted him to printmaking was the variability. He thoroughly enjoyed reworking, retouching, and transforming plates, often progressing toward more subtle painterly effects. The figure seated in the foreground is believed to be Mary Cassatt's sister, Lydia.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.