Mary Cassatt

MARY CASSATT (1843-1926) Maternal Caress (Breeskin 150; Matthews and Shapiro 12) drypoint with etching and aquatint in colors, inked à la poupée, circa 1891, on wove paper, a fine and warm impression, Breeskin's third (final) state, Shapiro's sixth (final) state, signed and annotated 'Imprime par l'artiste et M. Leroy' in pencil, with the artist's blue monogram stamp (L. 604), from the edition of 25, with wide margins, generally in very good condition, framed P. 14½ x 10½ in. (368 x 267 mm.) S. 16¾ x 12¾ in. (426 x 324 mm.) Property from the Paul and Helen Zuckerman Collection This rare impression of Maternal Caress is an example of the intimate domestic subjects for which Mary Cassatt is famed as both a painter and graphic artist. It reveals some of the influences she encountered while living in Paris at the turn of the century and demonstrates her unique accomplishments as a printmaker. Stimulated by the 19th-century etching revival, Cassatt, like Degas and Pissarro, recognized the creative potential of printmaking and sought to explore it as an adjunct to her painting. A visit to the vast exhibition of Japanese color woodblock prints held at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1890 had a significant influence on the direction of her work. In that same year she began her most famous group of color prints, of which Maternal Caress is one. Like the albums depicting Japanese women in familiar domestic rituals, Cassatt created a set of ten images of bourgeois woman engaging in simple daily activities. She worked in a mixed intaglio method, incorporating some of the same compositional elements used in the Japanese woodblocks: broad, evenly-lit and shadowless color areas applied with a number of different plates, spatial compression of the figures and their surroundings, and the rhythmic play of lines and patterns. Cassatt herself pulled many of the trial proofs of the individual plates used for each subject. In this way she could visualize and alter the areas of aquatint as well as the drypoint lines on the plates that would later be successively printed for the final states of the published editions. For the editioning of these subjects, Cassatt enlisted the technical assistance of a professional printer, Leroy. Each of the final twenty-five impressions has a slightly different appearance due to her custom of individually inking the plates and purposely varying the colors before passing them to Leroy for registration and printing.

Lot 27 Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) MARJORIE WEARING A DRESS WITH PUFFED SLEEVES (BREESKIN 167) Drypoint printed in brown, circa 1895, on Vanderley cream laid paper, signed with initials in pencil, matstain, old tape along top and left sheet edges verso, a 5/8 inch split just at the outline and to the right of her left sleeve, a thin area above and to the right of the split (visible when held up to the light), a few unobtrusive small pale foxing spots, a 1/4 inch tear at bottom sheet edge, otherwise in good condition, with good margins, framed. 10 1/8 x 7 inches; 257 x 178 mm. Sheet 13 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches; 349 x 206 mm. C Estimate $4,000-6,000 Any condition statement is given as a courtesy to a client, is only an opinion and should not be treated as a statement of fact. Doyle New York shall have no responsibility for any error or omission. The absence of a condition statement does not imply that the lot is in perfect condition or completely free from wear and tear, imperfections or the effects of aging.

MARY CASSATT Peasant Mother and Child. Drypoint on cream laid paper, circa 1894. 296x236 mm; 11 3/4x9 1/4 inches, full margins. Third state (of 5). One of only a few known proofs in this state (Breeskin notes another proof at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and a proof with background and color tones on the dresses and flesh in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC). Signed in pencil, lower right. Ex-collection the artist; Anna Rush Duer (nee Whitehead); and Mary T. Cockcroft. Mary T. Cockcroft's collection of Cassatt paintings, pastels and 14 important aquatints and etchings was gifted to the Brooklyn Museum in 1946. This exceedingly scarce drypoint predates the published color version of this subject, in drypoint and aquatint, also very uncommon and known in only a handful of extant impressions. Breeskin 159. Estimate $15,000-20,000

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) Sketch of Mother Jeanne Looking Down, with Her Baby (No. 3) signed 'Mary Cassatt' (lower right) watercolor on paper 18½ x 13¾ in. (47 x 35 cm.) The artist. Durand-Ruel, Paris, acquired from the above, May 29, 1914. Durand-Ruel, New York, acquired from the above, August 2, 1939. Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 8 December 1944, no. 3. Charles E. Slatkin Galleries, New York, by 1955. Acquired by the present owner from the above, circa 1967. PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED CANADIAN COLLECTOR Whitney Museum of American Art, A History of American Watercolor Painting, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1942, p. 25, no. 130 (as Jeune femme et enfant). Paris, Durand-Ruel, June 8-27, 1914 (as Jeune femme et enfant). New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, A History of American Watercolor Painting, January 27-February 25, 1942, no. 130 (as Jeune femme et enfant). This painting will be included in the Cassatt Committee's revision of Adelyn Dohme Breeskin's catalogue raisonné of the works of Mary Cassatt.

Lot 51 Mary Cassatt (American, 1843-1926) Margot wearing a Bonnet (No. 3) , c. 1902, possibly a later impression (Breeskin, 181). Unsigned. Drypoint on laid paper with partial figural watermark, plate size 9 x 6 1/4 in. (22.8 x 15.8 cm), matted, unframed. Condition: Pale foxing, gently light-struck, pencil annotations to verso. Estimate $400-600