id: 121081 accession number: 1941.72 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1941.72 updated: 2020-11-04 19:59:43.605000 The Fitting, 1890-91. Mary Cassatt (American, 1844-1926). Color drypoint and aquatint; sheet: 42.7 x 31.4 cm (16 13/16 x 12 3/8 in.); platemark: 37.6 x 25.5 cm (14 13/16 x 10 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Charles T. Brooks 1941.72 title: The Fitting title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1890-91 creation date earliest: 1890 creation date latest: 1891 current location: creditline: Bequest of Charles T. Brooks copyright: --- culture: America, 19th century technique: color drypoint and aquatint department: Prints collection: PR - Drypoint type: Print find spot: catalogue raisonne: Mathews & Shapiro 9, Breeskin 147 --- CREATORS * Mary Cassatt (American, 1844-1926) - artist --- measurements: Sheet: 42.7 x 31.4 cm (16 13/16 x 12 3/8 in.); Platemark: 37.6 x 25.5 cm (14 13/16 x 10 1/16 in.) state of the work: M & S: VI/VII, B: between V and VI/VI edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: signed, in pencil, at lower right: Mary Cassatt translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Silver Jubilee Exhibition opening date: 1941-06-23T04:00:00 The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941). title: What Was the Armory Show? opening date: 1963-06-27T04:00:00 What Was the Armory Show?. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 27-September 15, 1963). title: The Impressionist Aesthetic opening date: 1982-08-10T04:00:00 The Impressionist Aesthetic. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 10-October 31, 1982). title: Printing in Color opening date: 1985-09-10T04:00:00 Printing in Color. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10-November 17, 1985). title: Inventive Impressions: 18th- and 19-Century French Prints opening date: 2001-08-26T00:00:00 Inventive Impressions: 18th- and 19-Century French Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001). title: Mary Cassatt and the Feminine Ideal in Nineteenth-Century Paris opening date: 2012-10-04T00:00:00 Mary Cassatt and the Feminine Ideal in Nineteenth-Century Paris. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 14, 2012-January 20, 2013). title: Innovative Impressions: Cassatt, Degas, and Pissarro as Painter-Printmakers opening date: 2018-06-09T04:00:00 Innovative Impressions: Cassatt, Degas, and Pissarro as Painter-Printmakers. Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK (organizer) (June 9-September 9, 2018). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE Charles T. Brooks, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: ?-1941 footnotes: citations: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1941- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: The artist Camille Pissarro described the series of prints to which this work belongs as "admirable, as beautiful as Japanese work," praising Cassatt's translation of ukiyo-e woodblocks. digital description: This print belongs to a set of ten color etchings that Mary Cassatt displayed at her first exhibition, held at Paris's Galerie Durand-Ruel in 1891. To create the image of a woman being fitted for a gown by a seamstress, the artist worked with multiple printing plates and "painted" ink onto the surface of each by hand. As a result, although the prints exist in multiples, each is virtually unique. wall description: Cassatt approached the suite of ten color prints as an oil painter would-scraping off drypoint and aquatint areas on the plate if they did not please her, and varying the palette of each impression. The process was a laborious one-she worked out the design in drypoint on one plate, then transferred it to one or two other plates that were used for aquatint. Using commercial printer's ink, she mixed the colors herself and "painted" the plate before each impression, using a technique known as à la poupée. Working in this way, she could achieve different effects in each impression, making each print unique. The Fitting is an excellent example of Cassatt's different color combinations. For the Impressionists, fashion represented the transience, spectacle, and exchange of commodities in the bustling city of Paris. Cassatt-who herself loved luxurious clothes-used fashion in her art as a symbol of modernity, class, and feminine beauty. The graceful forms of her figures, the embodiment of Parisian chic, were not nymphs or goddesses, but entirely modern women. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Lees, Sarah and Richard R. Brettell. Innovative Impressions: Prints by Cassatt, Degas, and Pissarro. Exh. Cat. Tulsa, OK: Philbrook Museum of Art, 2018 page number: Mentioned: p. 75; Reproduced: p. 76, fig. 85 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1941.72/1941.72_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1941.72/1941.72_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1941.72/1941.72_full.tif