Maternal Caress

In Mary Cassatt's aquatint print Maternal Caress, a contented baby responds to his mother's affectionate, protective embrace, their faces touching as they clutch each other closely. Cassatt used spare etching and drypoint lines to define the two figures and to delicately detail hair, eyelashes, and other facial features. She applied aquatint to impart a subtle tonality to the floor, the upholstered chair in which the mother sits, and the wooden bed frame and patterned wallpaper in the background; she then selectively inked these areas in a range of warm colors. The cocoon-like oval of the figures and chair reinforces the intimacy of the mother-and-child embrace: the centrally placed naked infant is surrounded by the concentric oval forms of the pale lavender-spotted dress of the mother and the golden floral-patterned chair.

Mary Cassatt frequently portrayed women caring for children, as in this print and The Bath (TF 1994.4). Along with The Lamp (TF 1999.29), In the Omnibus (TF 1999.27), Woman Bathing (TF 1996.87), and Afternoon Tea Party (TF 1994.13), these works belong to a series of ten aquatints Cassatt made following her visit in 1890 to a major Paris exhibition of the Japanese prints she had long admired for their color, compositions, and subjects. She printed the group of aquatints with the assistance of an otherwise unidentified Monsieur Leroy, a Paris-based professional printer acknowledged by her on this impression. The resulting works are now regarded as a feat of innovation both technically and stylistically. Maternal Caress, in particular, demonstrates Cassatt's adaptation of the Japanese aesthetic of flat coloring and patterning into her own graphic vocabulary. With prints such as this, she offered a glimpse of the domestic life of contemporary women that was unprecedented in its intimacy and lack of sentimentality.

Collection Cameo, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, February 1995.

Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915 (Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 1995. [exh. cat.]

Regard sur Mary Cassatt (Mary Cassatt at a Glance), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 2–October 31, 1996.

American Artists and the Paris Experience, 1880–1910 Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, November 22, 1997–March 8, 1998.

The Decorative Form: The Aesthetic Movement, Arts & Crafts and the Asian Influence in American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, September 16–December 5, 1999.

On Process: The American Print, Technique Examined, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 13–March 2, 2001.

Le Japonisme en Amérique: oeuvres sur papier, 1880–1930 (Japonisme in America: Works on Paper, 1880–1930), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, September 15-November 30, 2002.

Mary Cassatt, graveur impressionniste (Mary Cassatt: Impressionist Printmaker), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–July 3, 2005. [exh. cat.]

Portrait of a Lady : peintures et photographies américaines en France, 1870–1915 (Portrait of a Lady: American Paintings and Photographs in France, 1870–1915), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, Giverny, France and  Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France (organizers). Venues: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, Giverny, France, April 1–July 14, 2008;  Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France, September 25, 2008–January 5, 2009 (exhibited in Giverny). [exh. cat.]

Terra Collection-in-Residence, Ashmolean Museum of Art & Archaeology, Oxford, United Kingdom, September 15, 2022–September 30, 2026.

 

Ives, Colta Feller. The Great Wave: The Influence of Japanese Woodcuts on French Prints. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1974. Text pp. 45–55 (discusses Mary Cassatt print Maternal Caress, cited specifically on pp. 48–49).

Breeskin, Adelyn Dohme. The Graphic Work of Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonné. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979. No. 150, p. 64; ill. p. 146 (color).

Getlin, Frank. Mary Cassatt: Paintings and Prints. New York: Abbeville Press, 1980. Text p. 90; ill. p. 91 (color impression from The National Gallery of Art).

Mathews, Nancy Mowll and Barbara Stern Shapiro. Mary Cassatt: The Color Prints. (exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts). Boston, Massachusetts: Museum of Fine Arts, 1989. No. 12, pp. 140-44.

Maternal Caress, Mary Cassatt. Collection Cameo sheet, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, February 1995. Ill. (black & white). [specific reference to Terra print]

Regard sur cinq années d'expositions (Five years of Exhibitions at a Glance). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1997. Text p. 113; ill. p. 108 (color). [specific reference to Terra print]

Barter, Judith A. Mary Cassatt, Modern Woman. (exh. cat., The Art Institute of Chicago). Chicago, Illinois: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1998. No. 63, p. 285 (color impression from The Art Institute of Chicago, acc. no. 1932.1288).

Mancoff, Debra N. Mary Cassatt: Reflections of Women's Lives. London, England: Frances Lincoln, 1998. Text p. 88; ill. p. 89 (color). [specific reference to Terra print]

Mary Cassatt: Impressions. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2005; Paris: Le Passage Paris–New York Éditions, 2005. Text p. 56 (checklist); ill. p. 59 (color). Vanessa Lecomte, editor. Portrait of a Lady : peinture et photographies américains (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny and Musée des beaux-arts de Bordeaux). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2008. Text (checklist) p. 93.