Afternoon Tea Party

Artist Mary Cassatt (American, active in France, 1844–1926)

Date1891

Mediumdrypoint and aquatint on Arches cream laid paper

Dimensionsplate: 34.4 × 26.8 cm (13 9/16 × 10 9/16 in.)
sheet: 43 × 30.2 cm (16 15/16 × 11 7/8 in.)

ClassificationsPrints

MarkingsB 151

Credit LineMrs. Kingsmill Marrs Collection

Terms

Object number1926.201

Descriptionstate v/v
Label TextBorn to a wealthy Pittsburgh family, Mary Cassatt began formal art instruction at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art when she was fifteen years old. Disillusioned by American patriarchal attitudes, she permanently moved to Paris to pursue a career in art. “After all, give me France,” she said. “Women do not have to fight for recognition here if they do serious work...Women should be someone and not something." Edgar Degas was a genuine admirer of Cassatt’s talent, yet even he praised her for depicting subject matter “appropriate” to her gender, like drinking tea and sewing.Provenance(Paul Durand-Ruel [1831-1922], Paris); (1891, Frederick Keppel & Co., New York, NY); November 30, 1891, purchased by Sylvester Koehler [1837-1900] on behalf of Laura Norcross, later Laura Norcross Marrs [1845-1926], Boston, MA; 1926, by bequest to the Worcester Art Museum.

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