Margot wearing a large bonnet, seated in an armchair

American-born Mary Cassatt was a prolific painter and printmaker and one
of the few independent women artists active in the late nineteenth century.
Born in Pittsburgh into a wealthy banking family, she began her artistic training in Philadelphia before migrating to France.

In the late 1870s Cassatt became close friends with Edgar Degas and was one of the few women to join the group of artists who later became known as the Impressionists. Her experimental printmaking practice drew inspiration from Japanese prints and her most favoured subjects were mother-and-child compositions and women engaged in everyday tasks.

The model in this print is Margot Lux, a child from a village close to Cassatt’s home near Beauvais in northern France. Margot frequently posed for Cassatt and was the model for almost fifty of the artist’s works. This drypoint was among one of the last prints made by the artist and was executed late in her career, before her failing eyesight forced her to give up printmaking.

Alice Clanachan, Assistant Curator, Prints, Drawings & Photographs