Kneeling in an Armchair

Mary Cassatt’s fame rests on her images of young mothers and children, subjects the American expatriate and Francophile depicted in many media, including drypoint. A drypoint is made by scratching a design with a needle directly into a metal plate. The plate is then coated with ink to fill the scratches. Excess ink is wiped off the plate before it is run through a press to produce the image on paper.Cassatt successfully translated the dashing effects of her impressionistic painting style into this drypoint, which shows Margot Lux, a friend’s daughter whom the artist rendered many times. Margot kneels in a chair with her back turned toward the viewer. Looking over her shoulder, she appears unhappy, perhaps suggesting mild disobedience.