The Art Institute of Chicago is presenting a major exhibition titled Mary Cassatt: After Impressionism. from September 6, 2026 – January 3, 2027
For this exhibit there are more than 70 works of Mary Cassatt from the late 1880s through the early 1900s, that includes major loans alongside the Art Institute's permanent collection pieces, such as The Child's Bath (1893), Breakfast in Bed (1897), Susan in a Straw Bonnet (c. 1883), and Children in a Garden (The Nurse) (1878).
The collection gathers paintings depicting women and children in everyday intellectual, domestic, and social pursuits,
Title: The Reader
Date: 1877
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection/Credit: Courtesy Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas
I think this is my favorite of Cassatt's paintings. I had seen it before, several years ago at the Crystal Bridges Museum and I am glad it was included in this exhibit.
The Child's Bath
Created: 1893: Oil on canvas
This was acquired in 1910 and is one of the centerpiece masterpieces of the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection.
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The text beside the painting says-
Susan in a Straw Bonnet
About 1883
Pastel on paper
Cassatt took up pastel during her time as a member of the Impressionists, skillfully deploying the medium in lively figure studies such as Susan in a Straw Bonnet. Modeling the face of the sitter with blended, layered passages of pastel, the applied swift strokes of intense color to describe the sitter's hat and costume and to suggest an outdoor setting.
In addition to hiring models to pose, the artist looked to her extended domestic circle for sitters, including Susan, who was the cousin of Cassatt's longtime housekeeper, Mathilde Valet.
Wall Tag Text says
Title: Children in a Garden (The Nurse)
Date: 1878
Medium: Oil on canvas
Description:
In this outdoor scene featuring children and a caretaker, Cassatt focused more on landscape and the effects of light and atmosphere than on figuration. She employed daubs of paint in short, unblended brushstrokes, encircling the small-scale figures within a dense yet energetic field of greenery and blooms. Cassatt showed Children in a Garden (The Nurse) in 1886 at the eighth and final Impressionist exhibition, alongside Children Playing on the Beach (on view nearby).
Credit: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Meredith J. Long
Text on the wall next to the painting says:
Title: Breakfast in Bed
Date: 1897
Medium: Oil on canvas
Description: Executed about a decade into Cassatt's serial exploration of the maternal theme, Breakfast in Bed reveals a spirited take on her familiar subject. The reclining woman circles her arms around the child sitting at her side, their heads in close proximity. Yet the composition is equally a bold aesthetic experiment: Cassatt orchestrated her white palette to brilliant effect, heightening the interplay of representational form and material paint on the canvas's surface.
Credit: The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, Gift of the Virginia Steele Scott Foundation.
I will share a few more of the photos from the exhibition in another post.
All photos are from my family albums
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