The Caress - Mary Cassatt
Archival giclée
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Description
A delicate drypoint print by Mary Cassatt, capturing a tender, intimate moment between a mother and child through clean, expressive lines.
Mary Cassatt, an American painter and printmaker who spent much of her career in France, produced this drypoint and aquatint work during a period of intense experimentation with printmaking techniques. Influenced by the Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints she encountered at a major exhibition in Paris in 1890, Cassatt adopted a simplified approach to form and line. This work captures a quiet, domestic moment between a mother and child, a recurring subject in her oeuvre.
The composition relies on clean, economical lines to define the figures. The mother sits in profile, her gaze directed towards the child, who reaches out to touch her cheek. This gesture provides the title for the piece. Cassatt avoids unnecessary detail, allowing the negative space of the paper to suggest the volume of the clothing and the soft light of the interior. The drypoint technique creates a burr that softens the edges of the lines, giving the print a delicate, sketch-like quality that feels immediate and unposed.
Unlike her oil paintings, which often employ a broader palette, this print focuses on the interaction of line and form. The artist uses the plate mark to frame the scene, drawing the viewer into the intimate space shared by the two figures. The lack of background detail ensures that the focus remains entirely on the emotional connection between the mother and child. This print demonstrates Cassatt's technical skill in managing the copper plate to achieve varied tonal effects, despite the apparent simplicity of the design. It is a characteristic example of her ability to elevate everyday scenes of motherhood into subjects of serious artistic inquiry, free from the sentimentality often associated with such themes in the nineteenth century.
Return policy
Because every print is made to order, we don't offer change-of-mind returns, refunds or exchanges. If your order arrives faulty, damaged or incorrect, we'll replace it free of charge — just contact us within 48 hours of delivery. See our refunds page for full details.
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Manufacturing
Each print is produced to order using 12-colour giclée printing on FSC-certified archival paper. Designed in Britain and printed at your nearest production hub to reduce waste and speed up delivery.
Care and materials
Specific Features
Every Solis piece is made to order with archival, gallery-quality materials built to last.
- Museum-grade giclée printing for rich, fade-resistant colour
- Archival matte fine-art paper, FSC-certified
- Multiple sizes and framing options available
- Frames in black, natural wood, dark wood or white
- Framed prints arrive ready to hang
Care & Cleaning
To keep your artwork looking its best:
- Dust gently with a soft, dry cloth
- Avoid prolonged direct sunlight
- Never use liquid cleaners on the print or canvas surface
- Keep in a dry, room-temperature space
- Handle prints with clean, dry hands
Materials & Sizing
Museum-grade giclée on FSC-certified archival matte paper, with framed and canvas options.
- Paper sizes: A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 and B2 (50×70 cm)
- Canvas: XS (20×30 cm) to Large (60×90 cm)
- Frames: black, natural wood, dark wood or white
The Caress - Mary Cassatt
Artist Biography
Mary Cassatt
She grew up in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh), in a prosperous family. She studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she found the instruction restrictive and the male students hostile. She moved to Paris in 1866, copied old masters in the Louvre, and studied privately with several painters before finding her direction with the Impressionists.
Her subject was women and children in domestic settings: mothers bathing infants, women reading, girls at the opera, women having tea. The subject matter sounds conventional. The treatment is not. She observed her subjects with the same unsentimental attention Degas brought to dancers. The compositions are cropped and angled, influenced by Japanese prints and by Degas's habit of painting people from unexpected viewpoints. Little Girl in a Blue Armchair (1878) shows a child sprawled across a chair with the boredom and physical abandon that adults rarely notice and painters rarely record.
She never married. She was wealthy enough not to need to sell her work. She used her position and her connections to persuade American collectors, particularly the Havemeyers, to buy Impressionist paintings. The Havemeyer collection, much of it acquired on Cassatt's advice, was donated to the Metropolitan Museum. She shaped the taste of American collectors more than any other single individual.
She developed cataracts and was nearly blind by 1914. She stopped painting. She died in 1926, at eighty-two.
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