Skip to main content

Visit Main Menu Block

  • Hours & Admission
  • Accessibility & Amenities
  • Tours & Group Visits
  • Visitor Guidelines

Exhibitions and Events Main Menu Block

  • Exhibitions
  • Events

Art and Design Main Menu Block

  • The Collection
  • Projects & Publications
  • Past Exhibitions

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Image

RISDM 2017-13-1.jpg
Previous 1 / 1 Next

Mary Cassatt

Telling Fortunes, ca. 1881

Recent Acquisition

Description

Maker

  • Mary Cassatt, 1844-1926, American, designer

Title

Telling Fortunes

Year

ca. 1881

Medium

Soft-ground etching and aquatint on beige-colored, smooth wove paper

Dimensions

Image/plate: 13.3 x 21.3 cm (5 1/4 x 8 3/8 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Signed, in graphite, at LR, below plate: Mary Cassatt. Inscribed, in graphite, at LL: E1167 E296 ab [illeg.]. Inscribed, in graphite, on verso, at LL: 11-; at LR: C37; at center: 13 1/4 x 15 1/2. At LL of plate mark, on verso: mark of Robert Hartshorne (L.2215b).

Type

  • Works on Paper,
  • Prints

Credit

Esther Mauran Acquisitions Fund and Helen M. Danforth Acquisition Fund

Object Number

2017.13.1

Projects & Publications

Publications

Altered States

Etching in Late 19th-Century Paris
Read Online

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Altered States

June 30 - December 3, 2017

Like much of Cassatt’s work, this scene focuses on domestic life—here, a young woman uses a deck of cards to tell a friend’s fortune. During the 1880s, Cassatt experimented widely with soft-ground etching, a technique that allowed artists to make prints from drawings. Cassatt placed a sheet on top of a copper plate coated with a softer material, such as wax mixed with tallow. The lines she drew pressed into this material, transferring the image onto the plate. Evidence of this translation can be seen on the back of the sheet, where the material adhered.

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 (CC0 1.0). This object is Telling Fortunes with the accession number of 2017.13.1. To request high-resolution files or 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.

RISD Museum

  •  Facebook
  •  Twitter
  •  Instagram
  •  Vimeo
  •  Pinterest
  •  SoundCloud

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Footer Secondary

  • Image Request
  • Press Office
  • Rent the Museum
  • Terms of Use