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Mary CassattGirl with a Banjo by Mary CassattCirca 1894
Circa 1894
Price Upon Request
Price Upon Request
Price Upon Request
Price Upon Request
Price Upon Request
Price Upon Request
Price Upon Request
Price Upon Request
Price Upon Request
Price Upon Request
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About the Item
Mary Cassatt
1844–1926 American
Girl with a Banjo
Signed (lower right)
Pastel on board
This important pastel entitled Girl with a Banjo by Mary Cassatt is a true masterwork from one of the most significant figures in the Impressionist movement. In the late 19th century, American artists in France faced marginalization, with women encountering even greater obstacles. Yet Cassatt overcame these challenges, not through talent alone, but with extraordinary vision and unwavering perseverance. Created at the peak of her career, this exquisite composition coincided with her monumental mural commission for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, underscoring her pivotal role in both American and European art history.
Encouraged by her close friend and mentor Edgar Degas, Cassatt began experimenting with the medium of pastel in the early 1880s. Her mastery of the medium became one of the defining elements of her artistic legacy. Girl with a Banjo exemplifies her technical virtuosity in pastel, with its vibrant, explosive use of color and dynamic brushwork, enhancing the delicate rendering of the young musician’s pale skin and soft hair. The composition is alive with texture and movement, bringing the figure to life with remarkable immediacy.
By the early 1890s, Mary Cassatt had firmly established herself as the foremost American female artist, reshaping the role of women in art and society alongside fellow Impressionist Berthe Morisot. While earlier female artists often followed the stylistic conventions of their male peers, Cassatt and Morisot distinguished themselves by focusing on the lives of women, depicting them as active participants in their domestic and personal spheres. In 1891, Cassatt was commissioned to create a large mural for the Woman’s Building at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Her monumental work, Modern Woman, spanned 54 feet by 14 feet and explored the expanding roles of women in modern society. A central figure in the mural depicted a woman playing the banjo—an instrument associated with African American culture and considered unconventional for women—highlighting Cassatt’s bold statement on women’s growing autonomy and their evolving place in the world.
During this period, Cassatt produced several works of women playing the banjo, many of which were preparatory studies for her mural. Girl with a Banjo stands as one of only two complete works on this subject, with the other belonging to the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. This particular pastel is widely regarded as the finest of her surviving banjo-themed works. Unfortunately, Cassatt's mural for the World’s Columbian Exposition was lost after the fair, likely destroyed in a warehouse fire, leaving works like Girl with a Banjo as rare surviving testaments to this significant phase of her career. Cassatt’s legacy as a groundbreaking artist endures, with her pastels highly prized by collectors and prestigious institutions worldwide.
Circa 1894
Paper: 23" high x 28" wide (58.42 x 71.12 cm)
Frame: 37 1/2" high x 42 1/4" wide x 2 3/4" deep (95.25 x 107.32 x 6.99 cm)
Exhibited:
The Art Institute of Chicago, Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman, 10 October 1998-10 January 1999, no. 74, p. 218, 296, 325, illustrated in color; exhibition traveled to Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 6 February-10 May 1999 and National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 5 June-6 September 1999
Provenance:
Roger Marx, Paris
Private collection, Tokyo, acquired from above
Sale, Sotheby’s London, 26 June 1990, lot 13, sold by above
Private collection, Texas
Private collection, Los Angeles, by 1998
M.S. Rau, New Orleans
- Creator:Mary Cassatt (1844-1926, American)
- Creation Year:Circa 1894
- Dimensions:Height: 37.5 in (95.25 cm)Width: 28 in (71.12 cm)Depth: 2.75 in (6.99 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New Orleans, LA
- Reference Number:Seller: 32-00251stDibs: LU18615967672
Mary Cassatt
As one of just two females and the only American member of the original French Impressionist circle, Mary Cassatt stands out for her ability to capture scenes of domestic life in her paintings that her male contemporaries often did not encounter.
Where other Impressionists indulged in sensual or sensational scenes of Parisian women, Cassatt’s unique perspective allowed her to create intimate, true-to-life renderings of her subjects. She pushed the radical art movement further to capture tender, fleeting instants shared by women as mothers, daughters, sisters and friends. Between 1860 and 1865, she studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and in December 1865, she sailed to Paris to study with the French painters Charles Chaplin and Jean-Léon Gérôme.
In 1868, Cassatt made her debut at the Paris Salon but returned to Philadelphia in 1870 with the onset of the Franco-Prussian war. However, by 1874 she had settled again in Paris, where she would live most of her adult life.
Just three years later, Cassatt met a man who would change the trajectory of her career forever: Edgar Degas. At his invitation, she joined a group that would become known as the Impressionists and, under his influence, developed a love for drawing and works on paper. Inspired by the "new painting," Cassatt abandoned her former academic manner and adopted Impressionism's high-keyed hues and modern subjects.
Best remembered for her intimate portrayals of women, children and the mother-child relationship, Cassatt was a vital contributor to the Impressionist circle. Today, her works can be found in important collections the world over, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington D.C.) and Musée d'Orsay (Paris).
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(Biography provided by M.S. Rau)
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