Mary Cassatt at the Louvre: The Etruscan Gallery

Edgar Degas

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Degas depicted his close friend and fellow painter Mary Cassatt and her sister, Lydia, in this unconventional etching. Unlike the working-class women who served as his best-known subjects-ballet dancers, laundresses, and prostitutes-the Cassatt sisters were representative of his own station. Their status as prosperous and respectable women is reflected in their attire, deportment, and engagement in a leisurely activity. Degas portrayed Mary, who posed for the standing figure at right, with her back turned toward the viewer and her face hidden. Rather than looking out of the picture, her gaze is focused on an Etruscan sarcophagus bearing reclining figures that symbolize marital harmony-an ironic comment, perhaps, from Degas given that both sisters were unmarried.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art