Mary Cassatt at the Louvre: The Etruscan Gallery

Mary Cassatt at the Louvre: The Etruscan Gallery by Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917) is a masterful and technically complex print created between 1879 and 1880. Utilizing a dynamic combination of soft ground etching, drypoint, aquatint, and standard etching on buff laid paper, Degas demonstrates his experimental commitment to printmaking during this key phase of his career. The layered intaglio techniques allowed the artist to achieve a rich range of tonal qualities and textural variations often difficult to attain in a single medium.

The subject captures Degas’s close colleague, the American painter Mary Cassatt, immersed in observation within the hallowed halls of the Louvre museum in Paris. Cassatt, stylishly dressed and leaning on her umbrella, gazes intently at the ancient artifacts, embodying the modern, intellectual woman navigating the cultural history of France. This depiction reflects Degas’s sustained interest in candid, unposed moments and the everyday life of the Parisian elite, moving beyond traditional historical or mythological subjects.

The work is a significant testament to the artistic relationship between Degas and Cassatt, often highlighting her independence and intellectual rigor. The dark, velvety lines created by the drypoint contrast with the broader, softer passages achieved through aquatint, lending an atmospheric depth to the museum setting. This piece, classified simply as a print, remains an important document of 19th-century French artistic innovation and the evolving role of women artists. Today, this remarkable work resides in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.