Gathering Fruit

Mary Cassatt produced her first portfolio of ten color prints, which featured scenes of modern public and domestic life in Paris, in 1890–91. After this initial group, Cassatt produced only eight or so additional color prints, including these two works. Gathering Fruit was based on the central panel of a mural that Cassatt created for the Woman’s Building at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The complex figural arrangement highlights Cassatt’s achievement at balancing pattern, color, and line, as well as her skill in employing a wide variety of printmaking techniques. Peasant Mother and Child is one of the latest color prints that Cassatt created. The work is left unfinished at the bottom, allowing insights into the artist’s working methods.