Afternoon Tea Party

Afternoon Tea Party is a sophisticated print created by Mary Cassatt between 1890 and 1891. This complex work is rendered using a highly specialized combination of color drypoint, softground etching, and aquatint on wove paper. This period, roughly 1876 to 1900, marked the height of Cassatt’s engagement with Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock techniques, which fundamentally transformed her approach to line, color, and composition. As a leading American artist integrated into the French Impressionist circle, Cassatt often focused on intimate scenes of domestic life, frequently exploring the social rituals and private moments of women in the late nineteenth century.

The subject, likely a depiction of the social convention of afternoon tea, allows Cassatt to study the relationship between two figures, emphasizing the structured geometry inherent in domestic space. The innovative use of multiple printmaking techniques defines this piece. The sharp, delicate lines of the drypoint provide structure, while the softground etching and aquatint introduce subtle gradations of color and tonal depth, characteristic of her revolutionary color prints series from the early 1890s. Cassatt’s dedication to this difficult medium elevated the status of the print classification within modern art, pushing technical boundaries to achieve painterly effects previously unseen in color prints.

Cassatt’s masterful control over line and texture in works like this secured her reputation both within the European avant-garde and among her peers in the American art world. This important piece is representative of the artist’s commitment to capturing the dignity and complexity of women's lives during the fin-de-siècle. As one of the most celebrated prints from her mature period, the work resides in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art. High-resolution images and details of these historical prints are often made available by institutions through digital archives, making works like Afternoon Tea Party accessible through the public domain for study and appreciation.