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Image

RISDM 2008-88-2.tif
  • RISDM 2008-88-2.tif

Mary Cassatt

Standing Nude with a Towel

Description

Maker

Mary Cassatt (American, 1844-1926)

Title

Standing Nude with a Towel

Year

ca. 1879

Medium

  • Soft-ground etching and aquatint on cream-colored,
  • moderately textured laid paper

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Soft-ground etching and aquatint on cream-colored,
  • moderately textured laid paper

Materials

aquatint

Supports

  • laid paper

Dimensions

Image/plate: 27.8 x 21.8 cm (10 15/16 x 8 9/16 inches)

Identification

State

state 1/4

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Mary B. Jackson Fund

Object Number

2008.88.2

Type

  • Prints

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Altered States
Etching in Late 19th-Century Paris
Jun 30, 2017 – Dec 03, 2017

Label copy

Cassatt printed states, or variations on the same plate, primarily as a means of technical experimentation. Rather than developing the composition or working toward a resolved appearance, as most artists did with states, this image of a nude model-an unusual subject for a female artist at this time-was gradually abstracted in later states. Edgar Degas, an artist keenly interested in process, was the original owner of these two impressions, and described such works by Cassatt as “delightful graphic experiments.” Cassatt herself later remarked to her biographer, “[Etching] is what teaches you to draw.”

Changing Poses
The Artist's Model
Nov 12, 2010 – Jun 06, 2011

Label copy

Although Mary Cassatt frequently worked with hired models for her scenes of mothers and children, depictions of the nude are rare within her work. This relatively early piece thus represents an adventurous choice of subject for Cassatt, and indeed for any female artist of her time. Cassatt settled in Paris in 1874 in order to pursue art-making with greater social freedom than America allowed at that time, but she nonetheless was subject to many of the conventions that had hindered the

careers of earlier women. In 1879 and 1880, Cassatt studied with Edgar Degas, whose many similar depictions of young women bathing may have inspired her to attempt the subject herself.

Related

Related

Mary Cassatt

Standing Nude with a Towel

More objects +

Use & Feedback

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Mary Cassatt (American, 1844-1926)
Standing Nude with a Towel, ca. 1879
Soft-ground etching and aquatint on cream-colored, moderately textured laid paper
Image/plate: 27.8 x 21.8 cm (10 15/16 x 8 9/16 inches)
Mary B. Jackson Fund 2008.88.2

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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