The Barefoot Child - Mary Cassatt
Archival giclée
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Description
A refined drypoint and aquatint print by Mary Cassatt, capturing a quiet, intimate moment between a mother and her child.
Mary Cassatt produced this work during a period of intense experimentation with printmaking techniques. Influenced by the Japanese woodblock prints she viewed at an 1890 exhibition in Paris, Cassatt adopted the use of drypoint and aquatint to achieve flat areas of colour and clear, defined contours. This specific piece depicts a mother and child, a subject that occupied much of her career. The composition focuses on the intimate interaction between the two figures, with the child resting on the mother's lap.
The technical execution demonstrates her mastery of the aquatint process, which allows for the soft, tonal washes seen in the background and the clothing. The mother wears a blue dress with puffed sleeves, while the child is dressed in white. The background is a warm, golden-orange hue that contrasts with the cooler tones of the mother's attire. Cassatt avoids excessive detail, preferring to capture the essence of the domestic moment through simplified forms and a controlled palette. The child's bare feet, from which the title derives, are rendered with minimal lines, typical of her approach to printmaking during the late 1890s. This work reflects her interest in the daily lives of women and children, presented without the sentimentality often found in contemporary academic painting. By stripping away unnecessary background elements, she directs the viewer's attention to the physical connection between the figures. The print remains a clear example of her ability to synthesise Western subject matter with Eastern aesthetic principles.
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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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We ship worldwide, printing at the production hub nearest to your delivery address. Delivery times and costs vary by destination — you'll see the options available to you at checkout.
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 Barefoot Child - 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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