Mary Cassatt

Telling Fortunes

Maker

Mary Cassatt (American, 1844-1926)

Title

Telling Fortunes

Year

ca. 1881

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

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).

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Esther Mauran Acquisitions Fund and Helen M. Danforth Acquisition Fund

Object Number

2017.13.1

Type

Exhibition History

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

Label copy

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.

Image use

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Public Domain 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)
Telling Fortunes, ca. 1881
Soft-ground etching and aquatint on beige-colored, smooth wove paper
Image/plate: 13.3 x 21.3 cm (5 1/4 x 8 3/8 inches)
Esther Mauran Acquisitions Fund and Helen M. Danforth Acquisition Fund 2017.13.1

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