A Portrait of the Artist's Mother

A Portrait of the Artist's Mother, created by Mary Cassatt between 1884 and 1894, offers a sensitive and deeply personal study of the artist’s most frequent and beloved model. Executed in softground etching and aquatint, and printed in a warm brown ink on laid paper, this print showcases Cassatt's sophisticated technical mastery during the height of her involvement with graphic arts. The long creation range, spanning a decade, suggests the artist’s deliberate refinement of the image through multiple states to achieve the desired effect.

Cassatt, an American expatriate who became pivotal to the French Impressionist movement, consistently used her family members as subjects. This practice lent her work an intimate psychological depth characteristic of her artistic output during the period 1876 to 1900. The deliberate choice of medium reflects her sustained interest in printmaking, which she embraced after studying under Degas and seeing the possibilities inherent in Japanese woodblock prints.

The delicate texture achieved by the softground etching allowed Cassatt to render subtle, pencil-like lines, while the complementary use of aquatint created nuanced tonal areas and shadows across the subject's face and clothing. This fusion of techniques gave the portrait a refined, painterly quality, effectively challenging the traditional hierarchy between graphic arts and oil painting prevalent at the time. This significant example of American art from the late 19th century illustrates the artist's dedication to capturing women in moments of quiet reflection. Today, this masterwork is housed in the extensive collection of the National Gallery of Art, available through resources that often disseminate high-resolution images of public domain artwork for scholarly study.