DOI Heft:
Nr. 105 (November, 1905)
DOI Artikel:Brinton, Christian: Concerning Miss Cassatt and certain etchings
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26961#0120
Miss Cassatt
time a position not far below his own. Düring her
apprenticeship and, indeed, afterward, Miss
Cassatt never faltered in her allegiance to the
tenets of Impressionism. Being financially inde-
pendent, she could afford to spend as much time as
was necessary in correcting and perfecting her
vision and her method of interpretation. The
result is that her work is resolute, thoughtful and
lucid. Much of her master’s strength of line is
there, and much also of his solemn, almost classic
restraint. In each case beneath the clear precision
of modern coloring and the freedom of modern
handling lies something of that balance, that
antique equipoise, naively rediscovered at the
dawn of the Renaissance.
At various intervals
Miss Cassatt has devoted
herseif to painting in oils
and in pastels, to colour
etching, dry point and
even lithography. While
her ränge of expression is
wide, her choice of mo-
tive is restricted. Forthe
most part, she tran-
scribes the intimate rela-
tionship of mother and
child. No one has caught
more faithfully the accent
at once simple and pro-
found of that mutual, re-
ciprocal existence. The
beseeching tenderness of
motherbood and the
spontaneous, primal
frankness of childhood
have never found a more
sympathetic interpreter.
All the mystery, actual
or fancied, that seems to
encircle infancy and all
the gentle ministration of
maternity are here re-
corclecl with a truth and
a vitality new to art.
Though in essen ce they
recall the eternal Mother
and Child, these scenes
are not weighted with the
momentous awe of the
old masters. They are
conceived amid refresh-
ing and always local sur-
roundings. Mother or
sometimes the nurse bathes, dresses and feeds the
infant in a quiet, well-lit room, with here a crisp
curtain and there a white bed. Or again, he is
taken into a garden bright with blossoms and the
green vesture of early summer. There is no at-
tempt at anecdote, no assault upon sentiment.
You are free to think of the deeper significance of
each group, yet you are not compelled to see any-
thing there beside unstudied composition, sure,
strong outline and clear, harmonious colour.
Miss Cassatt’s last formal exhibition in Paris was
held at the Durand-Ruel Galleries in the autumn of
1893, aRd the following winter, as well as dur-
ing successive seasons, her work has been on
W
MISS CASSATT
IV
time a position not far below his own. Düring her
apprenticeship and, indeed, afterward, Miss
Cassatt never faltered in her allegiance to the
tenets of Impressionism. Being financially inde-
pendent, she could afford to spend as much time as
was necessary in correcting and perfecting her
vision and her method of interpretation. The
result is that her work is resolute, thoughtful and
lucid. Much of her master’s strength of line is
there, and much also of his solemn, almost classic
restraint. In each case beneath the clear precision
of modern coloring and the freedom of modern
handling lies something of that balance, that
antique equipoise, naively rediscovered at the
dawn of the Renaissance.
At various intervals
Miss Cassatt has devoted
herseif to painting in oils
and in pastels, to colour
etching, dry point and
even lithography. While
her ränge of expression is
wide, her choice of mo-
tive is restricted. Forthe
most part, she tran-
scribes the intimate rela-
tionship of mother and
child. No one has caught
more faithfully the accent
at once simple and pro-
found of that mutual, re-
ciprocal existence. The
beseeching tenderness of
motherbood and the
spontaneous, primal
frankness of childhood
have never found a more
sympathetic interpreter.
All the mystery, actual
or fancied, that seems to
encircle infancy and all
the gentle ministration of
maternity are here re-
corclecl with a truth and
a vitality new to art.
Though in essen ce they
recall the eternal Mother
and Child, these scenes
are not weighted with the
momentous awe of the
old masters. They are
conceived amid refresh-
ing and always local sur-
roundings. Mother or
sometimes the nurse bathes, dresses and feeds the
infant in a quiet, well-lit room, with here a crisp
curtain and there a white bed. Or again, he is
taken into a garden bright with blossoms and the
green vesture of early summer. There is no at-
tempt at anecdote, no assault upon sentiment.
You are free to think of the deeper significance of
each group, yet you are not compelled to see any-
thing there beside unstudied composition, sure,
strong outline and clear, harmonious colour.
Miss Cassatt’s last formal exhibition in Paris was
held at the Durand-Ruel Galleries in the autumn of
1893, aRd the following winter, as well as dur-
ing successive seasons, her work has been on
W
MISS CASSATT
IV