The Banjo Lesson

Mary Cassatt's drypoint and aquatint print The Banjo Lesson presents two young women, perhaps sisters or a mother and adolescent daughter, seated together as the elder one strums a banjo. Dressed in an outfit with generous puffed blue sleeves, a white bodice, a yellow collar, and a pink dotted pale blue skirt, the player turns her head to watch her fingering along the instrument's neck as she strums. The younger listener, attired in pink and seated closely behind the musician, watches attentively. Cassatt's portrayal of this casual scene of pleasure in music demonstrates her ability to convey psychological subtlety while maintaining the aura of a private moment and her sitters' decorum. In her portraits of more than one sitter, as in her many mother and child images, such as Maternal Caress (TF 1994.5), she often focused on two heads posed closely together. Such a "coupled" composition expresses the intimacy of familial relationships or other close emotional bonds between the figures.

The Banjo Lesson exemplifies Cassatt's commanding use of monotype inking, which imparts an effect of a painter's brushstrokes, particularly on the banjo player's sleeves. This impression is from the fourth and final state; other impressions of this state vary slightly due to Cassatt's applications of different combinations of color. Cassatt adapted this composition, like Gathering Fruit (TF 1993.14), from her image of a banjo-player, representing music, in her major mural Modern Woman, which graced the Woman's Building at the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. That year, an impression of The Banjo Lesson was included in Cassatt's first retrospective exhibition, at Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris.

A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 21–June 21, 1987. [exh. cat.]

Selections from the Permanent Collection: Americans at Home and Abroad, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, November 6–29, 1987.

An American Revelation: The Daniel J. Terra Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, February 28–October 1, 1988.

American Painters in France, 1830–1930, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, June 14–September 3, 1989. [exh. cat.]

Face, Figure and Form: Art and the Human Condition, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Art Museum, The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (organizer). Venue: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Art Museum, The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, January 19–March 4, 1990.

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, June 1–November 1, 1992; April 1–October 31, 1993; April 1–October 30, 1994; 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.

Domestic Bliss: Family Life in America, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 12–June 22, 1997.

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.

Artistic Communities: Mary MacMonnies Low and Frederick MacMonnies in Chicago and Giverny, Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, July 12–October 7, 2001 (modified form of An Interlude in Giverny: The French Chevalier by Frederick MacMonnies at the Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, October 24, 2000–June 24, 2001 and Mary et Frederick MacMonnies, un atelier à Giverny [Mary and Frederick MacMonnies, a Studio in Giverny] at the Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–July 1, 2001). [exh. cat.]

A Place on the Avenue: Terra Museum of American Art Celebrates 15 Years in Chicago, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, November 16, 2002–February 16, 2003 (on exhibit extended run: November 2, 2002–March 2, 2003).

Mary Cassatt: Friends and Family, Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont (organizer). Venues: Shelburne Museum, June 21–October 26, 2008; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, November 21, 2008–January 25, 2009. [exh. cat.]

Breeskin, Adelyn Dohme. The Graphic Work of Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonné. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979. No. 156, p. 65; ill. p. 150 (black & white).

Breeskin, Adelyn Dohme. Mary Cassatt: Graphic Art. (exh. cat., Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1981. Ill. no. 40 (black & white impression from the Grand Rapids Art Museum).

Atkinson, D. Scott et al. A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art. Edited by Terry A. Neff. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1987. Pl. T-61, p. 170 (color). [specific reference to Terra print]

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. 16, pp. 164–67 (no. 16, fourth state).

Gerdts, William H. et al. Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text p. 254; pl. 75, p. 255 (color). [specific reference to Terra print]

Gerdts, William H. et al. Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text p. 254; pl. 75, p. 255 (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. Text pp. 217-18; fig. 8, p. 218 (color impression from the Collection of Kay and Michael A. Park).

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. 98–99; ill. pp. 98-99 (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. 71 (color).

Matthews, Nancy Mowll. Mary Cassatt: Friends and Family. (exh. cat., Shelburne Museum). Shelburne, Vermont: Shelburne Museum, Inc., 2008. Text p. 37; ill. fig. 38, p. 38 (color).