Aaron Anderson
Specialist, Head of Sale
PROPERTY FROM A PROMINENT NEW YORK PRIVATE COLLECTION
Lot 33
Mary Cassatt(1844-1926)Stout Mother Trying to Awaken Her Baby (Femme se penchant sur un bébé) 20 1/2 x 17 1/8 in. (52.1 x 43.5 cm.)
7 November 2023, 14:00 EST
New YorkUS$150,000 - US$250,000
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Mary Manfredi
Cataloguer & Sale Coordinator
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926)
Stout Mother Trying to Awaken Her Baby (Femme se penchant sur un bébé)
pastel and charcoal on paper laid down on board
20 1/2 x 17 1/8 in. (52.1 x 43.5 cm.)
Executed in 1906-07.
pastel and charcoal on paper laid down on board
20 1/2 x 17 1/8 in. (52.1 x 43.5 cm.)
Executed in 1906-07.
Footnotes
Provenance
Estate of the artist.
Mathilde Valet, Chateau de Beaufresne, France, acquired from the above, 1927.
Sale, Galerie A.M. Reitlinger, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, March 30, 1927, no. 89, sold by the above.
Galerie Simonson, Paris, acquired at the above sale.
(possibly) Gerard, Paris.
(possibly) Galerie Schmit, Paris, circa 1967.
Galerie Jean Tiroche, Palm Beach, Florida, until at least 1971.
Oscar Kimelman (1908-1988), New York.
Estate of the above.
Sale, Christie's, New York, December 2, 1988, lot 203, sold by the above. (as Femme se penchant sur un bebe)
Acquired by the present owner at the above sale.
Exhibited
Coral Gables, Florida, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, French Impressionists Influence American Artists, March 19-April 25, 1971, p. 22, no. 17. (as Mother and Child)
Literature
"Revue des ventes de mars et d'avril," Le Figaro artistique, Paris, April 28, 1927, p. 459.
A.D. Breeskin, Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oils, Pastels, Watercolors, and Drawings, Washington, D.C., 1970, p. 184, no. 490, illustrated. (as Stout Mother Trying to Awaken Her Baby)
K. Sharp, S. Bradham, A.M. Thomas, J.N. Pierotti, A. Roadarmel, Cedarhurst: The Museum & Its Collection, Mount Vernon, Illinois, 2008, p. 146, n11.
Mary Cassatt repeatedly revisited the portrayal of mother and child throughout her oeuvre. Although the artist never married or had any children, her loving portraits of motherhood became her most widely recognized subject. Cassatt was known to highlight women in public and private settings, and frequently captured conventional exchanges between maternal figures. These intimate scenes range from a child sitting on the lap of her mother, a toddler clasping her mother's cheeks, or as is depicted in Stout Mother Trying to Awaken Her Baby, a mother warmly glancing down at her sleeping child, gently caressing its chin in an attempt to awaken it from its slumber.
Cassatt was born in Pennsylvania in the mid-nineteenth century. As a teenager, she began taking classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts before moving to France. She became the only American artist to join the Impressionist group in Paris, where she would work and exhibit alongside the likes of Edgar Degas (1834-1917) and Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), among others.
Cassatt's mother and child scenes date as far back as the late-1880s, but from 1900 onward, she exclusively devoted herself to the subject. The present work, executed 1906-07, marks Cassatt's absolute devotion to capturing mothers and children and showcases her exemplary skills in portraiture and as a colorist. The present was notably once in the collection of Mathilde Valet, Cassatt's housekeeper.