Modern Discoveries
Modern Discoveries
Smiling Mother with Sober Faced Child
Lot Closed
December 16, 03:07 PM GMT
Estimate
30,000 - 50,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Mary Cassatt
1844 - 1926
Smiling Mother with Sober Faced Child
pastel on tan paper mounted on canvas
32 by 25½ in.
81 by 65 cm.
Executed circa 1903-04.
This pastel is included as no. 420 in the Cassatt Committee's revision of Adelyn Dohme Breeskin's catalogue raisonné of the works of Mary Cassatt.
Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 22 February 1963, no. 24 (as Mère et Enfant)
(probably) Adolphe Stein, Paris
(probably) Findlay Galleries, Chicago, Illinois
Sotheby's London, 23 October 1963, no. 66 (as Mère et Enfant)
Acquavella Galleries, New York
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Orman, Miami, Florida (acquired by 1971)
Christie's New York, 1 June 1984, lot 190
Private Collection (acquired from the above)
Sotheby's New York, 6 March 2019, lot 117 (consigned by the above)
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Art Quarterly, vol. 26, issue 4, 1963, p. 508
Adelyn Dohme Breeskin, Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oils, Pastels, Watercolors, and Drawings, Washington, D.C., 1970, no. 242, p. 116, illustrated
Richard H. Love, Cassatt: The Independent, Chicago, Illinois, 1980, p. 34, illustrated
This charming pastel appears to be a study for a portrait of Louisine Havemeyer and her daughter Electra. Havemeyer was perhaps the most prominent American patron of Impressionist art at the turn of the twentieth century, and Mary Cassatt played a pivotal role in the development of her collection. "I call [Cassatt] my fairy godmother of my collection," said Havemeyer, "for the best things I own have been bought on her judgement and advice" (quoted in Shelburne Museum, Cassatt/Havemeyer: Art, Collection, and Social Influence).