Women Artists

Collection Info

Art by American women constitutes eight percent of the Terra's collection and includes oil and watercolor paintings, pastels, and various types of prints. (updated 2/2019, following deaccessions)

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Under the Horse-Chestnut Tree

Mary Cassatt

Date: 1896–97

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1987.17

Text Entries: Mary Cassatt began her art training in Philadelphia at the age of sixteen, impatient with the academic emphasis on draftsmanship and eager to begin figure painting in oil. It was only after establishing herself in France as a portrait and genre painter, and exhibiting at Edgar Degas' invitation with the Impressionists, that Cassatt was inspired to develop an innovative, graphic and spare drawing style influenced by Japanese ukiyo-e prints pulled from wood blocks. Her famous series of ten color prints of 1890-1891, which included The Lamp, depict the enclosed and implicitly complete world of the upper class Parisian woman. Cassatt combined drypoint with aquatint techniques, used diluted printer's ink rather than paint, and employed the help of a professional printer; she explained that rather than duplicating Japanese printmaking methods, she had attempted to infuse a Japanese "atmosphere" into these works. Between 1892 and 1897, she designed nine more prints. Under the Horse Chestnut Tree typifies Cassatt's fascination with tender but unsentimental images of mothers and children; though she never married, she once declared that "There's only one thing in life for a woman; it's to be a mother." Cassatt probably executed Summertime at her country home of Mesnil-Beaufresne, where she lived year-round after her mother's death in 1895. The composition of the painting, including facing female figures in a rowboat cut off at right and an absent upper horizon line, reappears in one of her prints; though her range of subjects was comparatively small, Cassatt often explored a single composition in multiple media. Her use of bright, pure color, expressive brushwork and an extreme vantage point (in this case, from above) to depict a scene of modern recreation reveal Cassatt's thorough understanding of the Impressionists' experiment.

The Barefooted Child

Mary Cassatt

Date: 1896–97

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1992.8

Text Entries: Breeskin, Adelyn Dohme. The Graphic Work of Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonné. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979. No. 160, p 66; ill. p. 152 (black & white). 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. 22 (fifth state), pp. 189–91. Adelson, Warren et al. Mary Cassatt: Prints and Drawings from the Artist's Studio. (exh. cat., Adelson Galleries, Inc.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2000. Text p. 106; ill. pp. 106 (black & white), p. 107 (color). 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. 57 (checklist); ill. p. 74 (color).

Mlle Luguet in a Coat and Hat

Mary Cassatt

Date: c. 1883

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1993.13

Text Entries: Breeskin, Adelyn Dohme. The Graphic Work of Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonné. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979. No. 48, p. 48; ill. p. 97 (black & white). Adelson, Warren et al. Mary Cassatt: Prints and Drawings from the Artist's Studio. (exh. cat., Adelson Galleries, Inc.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2000. Text p. 34; ill. p. 34 (color). Kennedy, Elizabeth and Sophie Lévy. Faces of America: Portraits of the Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, 1770–1940. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2004. Text p. 30 (checklist); ill. p. 53 (color). [specific reference to Terra print] Kennedy, Elizabeth and Sophie Lévy. Visages de l'Amérique: le portrait dans la collection de la Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1770–1940. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2004. Text p. 30 (checklist); ill. p. 53 (color). [specific reference to Terra print]

Gathering Fruit

Mary Cassatt

Date: c. 1893

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1993.14

Text Entries: A trellis of fruit trees covers the walls of a kitchen garden where two women are seen in flower-print dresses. Perched on a ladder, the first woman, her back to the viewer, is handing a piece of fruit to a child in the arms of the second. Mary Cassatt occupies a unique place in the history of American and French art. She was one of the few female artists of her time to be recognized by her peers for her varied talents as a painter, pastellist and printmaker. A resident of Paris from 1874 onwards, she was also the only American to be invited to show with the French Impressionist group. In the spring of 1890, Cassatt visited the important exhibition of Japanese art presented at the École des Beaux-Arts. There, she developed an enthusiasm for the woodcuts known as ukiyo-e. She was attracted to the aesthetic characteristics of these prints, such as subjects drawn from everyday life, the absence of traditional perspective, asymmetrical compositions, and the play between decorative motifs and flat colors. A few months later, she completed her first series of color prints "in the Japanese style," the most original works of her career. Though inspired by the Japanese prints, Cassatt found her subjects in the the bourgeois feminine world with which she was familiar. In this print, the artist creates a visual play of contrast between the fluid shapes of the flowery dresses the women wear and the the strong verticals and horizontals of the wall, the ladder and the bricks behind them.

The Bath

Mary Cassatt

Date: 1890–91

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1994.4

Text Entries: 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 The Bath, here titled The Tub, cited specifically on pp. 46–47 as Cassatt's first attempt to follow Utamaro's model). Breeskin, Adelyn Dohme. The Graphic Work of Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonné. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979. No. 143, pp. 61–62; ill. p. 140 (color). Getlin, Frank. Mary Cassatt: Paintings and Prints. New York: Abbeville Press, 1980. Text p. 76; ill. p. 77 (color impression from The National Gallery of Art). Breeskin, Adelyn Dohme. Mary Cassatt: Graphic Art. (exh. cat., Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1981. No. 32 (color impression from the Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute). 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. 5, pp. 103–109. Reymond, Nathalie. Un regard américain sur Paris (An American Glance at Paris). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1997. Text p. 28; ill. p. 26 (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. 56, p. 278 (color impression from The Art Institute of Chicago, acc. no. 1932.1287). Adelson, Warren et al. Mary Cassatt: Prints and Drawings from the Artist's Studio. (exh. cat., Adelson Galleries, Inc.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2000. Text pp. 76–79; ill. pp. 76-79 (color). Cartwright, Derrick R. The Extraordinary and the Everyday: American Perspectives, 1820–1920. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2001. Text p. 8; fig. 8, p. 8 (black & white). [specific reference to Terra print] Cartwright, Derrick R. L'Héroïque et le quotidian: les artistes américains, 1820–1920. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2001. Text p. 8; fig. 8, p. 8 (black & white). [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. 61 (color). Matthews, Nancy Mowll. Mary Cassatt: Friends and Family. (exh. cat., Shelburne Museum). Shelburne, Vermont: Shelburne Museum, Inc., 2008. Text p. 22; ill. fig. 24, p. 24 (color).

Maternal Caress

Mary Cassatt

Date: 1890–91

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1994.5

Text Entries: 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.

Afternoon Tea Party

Mary Cassatt

Date: 1890–91

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1994.13

Text Entries: Collection Cameo companion piece, 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. Collection Cameo, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 1999. Ville et campagne: les artistes américains, 1870–1920 (The City and the Country: American Perspectives, 1870–1920), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–July 15, 1999. [exh. cat.] 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. D'une colonie à une collection: le Musée d'Art Américain Giverny fête ses dix ans (From a Colony to a Collection: Celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of the Musée d'Art Américain Giverny), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, March 30–June 16, 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.] 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.

Bridge Cables II

Jolan Gross-Bettelheim

Date: c. 1940

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1995.35

Text Entries: Williams, Reba and Dave. "Jolan Gross Bettelheim: A Hidden Life." Print Quarterly 7:3 (1990): 303–314. Cartwright, Derrick R. and Paul J. Karlstrom. American Moderns, 1900–1950. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2000. Fig. 4, p. 78 (black & white). [specific reference to Terra print] Cartwright, Derrick R. and Paul J. Karlstrom. L'Amérique et les modernes, 1900–1950. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2000. Fig. 4, p. 78 (black & white). [specific reference to Terra print] Bourguignon, Katherine M., Lauren Kroiz, and Leo G. Mazow. America’s Cool Modernism: O’Keeffe to Hopper. Oxford, United Kingdom: Ashmolean Museum of Art & Archaeology–University of Oxford, 2018. Ill. p. 134, detail p. 16, cat. no.32 (color).

Bleecker Street Fire Hydrant

Kyra Markham

Date: 1942

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1995.43

Text Entries: Witkin, Lee D. Kyra Markham, American Fantasist (1891–1967). (exh. cat., The Witkin Gallery, Inc.). New York: The Witkin Gallery, Inc., 1981. Ill. p. 7 (black & white). Master Prints of Five Centuries, The Alan and Marianne Schwartz Collection. (exh. cat., The Detroit Institute of Arts). Detroit, Michigan: The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1990. No. 73, p. 94.

Queer Fish

Mabel Dwight

Date: 1936

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1996.16

Text Entries: Mabel Dwight (born Mabel Jacque Williamson) lived for many years in New York's Washington Square, working for a time as an assistant to Juliana Force, director of the Whitney Studio Club. The crowded and comic variety of the city's Depression-era population at work and at play inspired her best known lithographs, whose realistic, anecdotal treatment of everyday life exemplified the tenets of the developing American Scene movement. Despite having moved to New York as a young woman to establish herself as a painter and illustrator, Dwight found that upon her marriage to etcher Eugene Higgins in 1903, "domesticity followed and for many years my career as an artist was in abeyance." It was not until 1926 that Dwight, already separated from her husband, changed her name and sailed for Paris, where she made her first lithograph at the age of fifty-two. Soon after her return, her satirical prints appeared in publications such as Vanity Fair and were exhibited widely in American galleries. Dwight saw the print as an opportunity to democratize fine art; of her newfound medium, she wrote, A humorous subject, a political satire, can be made a lasting work of art, as much as any so-called beautiful theme. Lithography, being one of the reproductive media, enables an artist to reach a large public. Whether his message is still life or bitter revolt against social injustice, he can give it to the people.

Boy and Goose

Eliza Draper Gardiner

Date: c. 1919

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1996.19

Text Entries: Falk, Peter Hastings. Eliza Draper Gardiner: Master of the Color Woodcut. (exh. cat., Newport Art Museum). Madison, Connecticut: Sound View Press, 1987. No. 6.

Pickaback

Eliza Draper Gardiner

Date: c. 1920

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1996.20

Text Entries: Falk, Peter Hastings. Eliza Draper Gardiner, Master of the Color Woodcut. (exh. cat., Newport Art Museum). Madison, Connecticut: Sound View Press, 1987. No. 28. Green, Nancy E. and Jessie Poesch. Arthur Wesley Dow and American Arts and Crafts. (exh. cat., Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University). New York: American Federation of Arts, 1999, p. 24.