On a Balcony

On a Balcony by Mary Cassatt (American, 1844-1926) is an elegant oil on canvas painting created during the crucial years of 1878 and 1879. This work firmly establishes Cassatt’s status within the radical Impressionism movement flourishing in France during the late 19th century. Having settled in Paris, Cassatt was one of the few American artists fully integrated into the avant-garde circle, adopting their focus on modernity, candid compositions, and the study of light.

The painting utilizes the characteristic visible brushwork and vibrant palette of the period. Cassatt’s choice of medium allows her to capture the transitory quality of a specific time and place. The composition, depicting figures situated on a balcony, provides the artist with a dynamic way to explore the complex relationship between interiority and the external world of the city. Like many Impressionist painters, Cassatt was heavily influenced by the compositional boldness of Japanese ukiyo-e prints, evident in her use of high angles and often unconventional cropping that lends the scene an air of immediacy.

Cassatt frequently confined her subjects to domestic or semi-private urban spaces, providing an intimate, deeply observational perspective on the lives of women and children, a subject rarely explored with such insight by her male contemporaries. This celebrated piece, On a Balcony, encapsulates her unique contribution to art history. The painting resides today as part of the esteemed permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. As this Impressionist masterwork is now historically situated and often considered part of the public domain, prints and digital images remain widely available, allowing researchers and art enthusiasts across the globe to study the subtle genius of Cassatt’s Parisian output.