Portrait of Ellen Mary Cassatt

Portrait of Ellen Mary Cassatt is an intimate depiction of one of Mary Cassatt's adored nieces, and a delightful example of her work in pastel. Ellen Mary was the second daughter of the artist's brother Joseph Gardner Cassatt and his wife, Eugenia. This portrait was probably executed in 1898 during the artist's only extended visit to the United States after she settled in Paris in 1874. By the late 1890s, Cassatt took to pastel as another means of expanding her artistic realm after having achieved a high measure of success with her Impressionist oils. By building up her subject with countless carefully placed pastel lines and marks, Cassatt here rendered "a masterpiece of simplicity." (N.M. Matthews, Mary Cassatt, New York, 1987, p. 72)

Cassatt's success at creating endearing images such as Portrait of Ellen Mary Cassatt led the artist to acquire a reputation as a leading painter of children. When John Singer Sargent was unable to accept a commission to paint the children of his Boston patrons Mr. and Mrs. Gardner Greene Hammond, he recommended Cassatt instead; she accepted the commission and executed the portraits around 1898. Such popularity was undoubtedly due to her unparalleled ability to capture the innocence, beauty and intelligence of her young subjects, characteristics seen in Portrait of Ellen Mary Cassatt.


This work will be included in the Cassatt Committee's revision of Adelyn Dohme Breeskin's catalogue raisonné of the works of Mary Cassatt.