The Letter

CC0 Public Domain Designation

Prints and Drawings

1890/91

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

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

The Art Institute of Chicago Bulletin XXVII (1933), p. 40 (ill.).
Adelyn D. Breeskin, The Graphic Work of Mary Cassatt (New York, 1948), p. 73, no. 146.
Nancy Mowll Matthews and Barbara Stern Shapiro, Mary Cassatt: The Color Prints, exh. cat. (New York, 1989), p. 124, cat. 8-IV.
Diane De Grazia and Carter E. Foster (editors), Master Drawings from the Cleveland Musesum of Art, exh. cat. (Cleveland, 2000), p. 214, fig. 1.
Masterworks of American Painting at the De Young (San Francisco, 2005).
Pamela Norris, Words of Love: Passionate Women from Heloise to Sylvia Plath (London, 2006).

Baltimore Museum of Art, “Mary Cassatt,” January 7-February 10, 1936, p. 13, cat. 27.
Portland, Maine, Portland Museum of Art, “Miss Mary Cassatt: Impressionist from Philadelphia,” May 17-July 1, 1979.
Williamstown, Mass., Williams College Museum of Art, “Mary Cassatt: The Color Prints,” November 25, 1989-January 21, 1990, p. 124, cat. 8-IV
The Art Institute of Chicago, January 27, 1993-January 16, 1994.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman,” October 10, 1998-January 10, 1999, pp. 281 and 323, cat. 59 (ill.).
Smart Museum of Art, “Awash in Color: French and Japanese Prints”, October 4, 2012 - January 20, 2013, pp. 120-121, fig. 99, cat. 51, cat. by Chelsea Foxwell et. al.

The artist to Durand-Ruel [Chicago 1998]. Albert Roullier, Chicago [Chicago 1998]. Given by Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson, Chicago, to the Art Institute, 1932.

Breeskin 146 III/III

Mathews & Shapiro 8 IV/IV

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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.

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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.

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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.