14-A Mary Cassatt, The Boating Party, 1893/1894

14-A Mary Cassatt, The Boating Party, 1893/1894
- Locate the horizon line. Where would a viewer have to be to see the people and boat from this angle? A viewer would have to be located a little above them, perhaps on a dock or standing in the boat.
- Where are the horizontal lines in this painting? They occur on the shoreline and the yellow boat seats and supports.
- What is the center of interest in this composition? It is the child.
- How has Cassatt emphasized this part of the painting? The curved lines of the boat, oar, and adults’ arms lead to the child.
- Where did Cassatt repeat yellow in this painting? Yellow is repeated in the boat, oars, and the woman’s hat.
- How does blue unify this painting? Cassatt repeats blue in large areas of water and inside the boat.
- Why does the man have his foot on the yellow boat support? He is getting ready to pull the oars or is steadying himself.
- Describe the movement that the boat might make in the water. It may be rocking and surging as the oars are pulled.
- Imagine that the man and woman are talking to each other. What might they say? What do their faces and bodies suggest about their relationship?
- How is the composition of this painting like a snapshot? It’s asymmetrical, with part of the figures continuing off the picture.
- Where are there broad areas of color? Broad areas of color are found in the sail, the man’s back, the yellow parts of boat, the blue shadow in the boat, and the water.(Asymmetrical balance and broad, flat areas of color were typical of the Japanese prints that became available in Europe and the United States following the opening of Japan by Commodore Perry in 1854; these prints influenced artists in the decades that followed.)
- Are there any other ways in which the painting appears flat? The boat looks tipped up and the water is painted the same way in the foreground and the background, so that the idea of distance is reduced.
- In what ways do forms seem to move toward the edges of the painting? Examples: the woman leans left, the man leans right; the sail pulls to one corner, the oar points to another; the edges of the boat bulge out toward the sides; the horizon nearly reaches the top; and the lower yellow boat seat continues beyond the bottom.
What pulls the three figures together? The white area of the boat surrounds them; they look at each other; and their hands are close.
What might this feeling of expansion and contraction have to do with the subject of the painting? It echoes the rowing motion of the man. Students might also point out that it could also emphasize this brief and precious moment—when the man, woman, and child are intimately connected.

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Little Girl in a Blue Armchair, 1878; Oil on canvas; 35 1/2 x 51 1/8 in. (89.5 x 129.8 cm)Inspired by Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and other members of their circle, Cassatt embraced the Impressionists' commitment to forthright storytelling about inconsequential subjects. In a room crammed with haphazardly arranged furniture, the daughter of friends of Degas sprawls on an overstuffed chair while Cassatt's Brussels griffon rests on another. Although Cassatt's candid picture of a bored or exhausted child repudiates traditional portraits of charming little girls in proper poses holding faithful dogs, she was enraged when the American jury rejected it for display at the 1878 Exposition Universelle. Instead, she showed it with the Impressionists in 1879, the first of her four exhibitions with the group.

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A Woman and a Girl Driving, 1881; Oil on canvas; 35 1/4 x 51 3/8 in. (89.7 x 130.5 cm)Cassatt settled in Paris in 1874 and became the only American to show her works with the Impressionists. She specialized in portraying women's activities. This canvas conveys the comfortable existence of women in her circle and her own support of female empowerment. Cassatt's sister, Lydia, who came to live in Paris in 1877, is seen driving a small carriage in the Bois de Boulogne, enjoying a familiar outing and taking charge of her own path—actually and symbolically. She is accompanied by Odile Fèvre, a niece of Edgar Degas. Lydia's independence and determined concentration are in contrast to the family's passive young groom, who observes from the backward-facing seat only where the carriage has been, not where it is going.


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Lady at the Tea Table, 1883–85; Oil on canvas; 29 x 24 in. (73.7 x 61 cm)Cassatt's formidable image of her mother's first cousin, Mary Dickinson Riddle, presiding at tea, a daily ritual among upper-middle-class women, is imbued with the spirit of authoritative conspicuous consumption. Mrs. Riddle holds a teapot, part of a gilded blue-and-white Canton porcelain service that her daughter had presented to Cassatt's family. In response to the gift, Cassatt painted the portrait, which demonstrates her mastery of Impressionism in the rapid brushwork and sketchlike finish, the casual handling of anatomy (notably Mrs. Riddle's ring-laden hand), and the sitter's indifference to the viewer. Cassatt set all her stories of everyday Parisian life in fashionable surroundings, which suggests the propriety that a female artist needed to observe, in contrast to colleagues such as Édouard Manet, who could frequent and portray plebeian (working-class) cafés.



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Young Mother Sewing, 1900; Oil on canvas; 36 3/8 x 29 in. (92.4 x 73.7 cm)During the 1890s Cassatt narrowed the range of her subjects to mothers or nurses caring for children, and children alone. These themes reflected her affection for her nieces and nephews and her friends' children as well as her contemporaries' concern with motherhood and child rearing. Set in the conservatory of Cassatt's seventeenth-century manor house near Le Mesnil-Théribus, Oise, this painting depicts two of her favorite unrelated models in the roles of mother and child. Louisine Havemeyer, who purchased the painting in 1901, remarked on the truthfulness of its narrative: "Look at that little child that has just thrown herself against her mother's knee, regardless of the result and oblivious to the fact that she could disturb ‘her mamma.' And she is quite right . . . Mamma simply draws back a bit and continues to sew."