Skip to Content
Today Open today 10–11 members | 11–8 public

The Letter

Print of a woman in a blue, patterned dress, seated at a desk and licking an envelope closed.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

Image actions

  • Print of a woman in a blue, patterned dress, seated at a desk and licking an envelope closed.

Date:

1890/91

Artist:

Mary Cassatt (American, 1844-1926)
printed with Leroy (French, active 1876-1900)

About this artwork

Mary Cassatt began a series of color prints in 1890 that exemplify her indebtedness to Japanese color woodblock prints and her thematic focus on figures in interiors. In The Letter, Cassatt used the patterns of the woman’s dress and wallpaper as well as vibrant printing inks to manipulate space and formal elements inspired by Japanese art. The subject matter reflects the artist’s focus on women indoors because contemporary social mores restricted their activities outside the home.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Mary Cassatt

Title

The Letter

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1890–1891

Medium

Color aquatint with drypoint, from three plates, on off-white laid paper

Inscriptions

Inscribed recto, lower right, below image, in graphite: "Imprim[ée] par l'artiste et Mr. Leroy / Mary Cassatt / (25 épreuves)"

Dimensions

Image/plate: 34.5 × 21.1 cm (13 5/8 × 8 5/16 in.); Sheet: 43.7 × 29.7 cm (17 1/4 × 11 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection

Reference Number

1932.1282

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/13508/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

Share

Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates.

Learn more

Image actions

Share