Woman With A Red Zinnia - Mary Cassatt
Archival giclée
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Description
A contemplative portrait by Mary Cassatt, featuring a woman in a lavender dress holding a single red zinnia.
Mary Cassatt, an American painter who spent much of her professional life in France, produced this portrait during a period of significant stylistic development. The work displays her interest in the quiet, domestic lives of women, a subject she explored throughout her career. The figure is seated, her gaze directed away from the viewer, suggesting a moment of introspection or private contemplation. She holds a single red zinnia, a small but deliberate splash of colour against her pale, patterned dress.
Cassatt’s technique here reflects the influence of her contemporaries within the Impressionist circle, as well as her fascination with Japanese woodblock prints. The composition is structured with a focus on flat planes of colour and a decorative approach to the subject's attire. The dress, rendered in soft shades of lavender and white, features vertical stripes that guide the eye across the canvas. The background is simplified, consisting of muted, earthy tones that suggest an outdoor setting without providing excessive detail. This choice keeps the focus firmly on the sitter.
The lighting is soft and diffused, characteristic of the artist's preference for natural, ambient illumination. Her brushwork is controlled, yet it retains a sense of immediacy. By avoiding overly polished surfaces, she captures the texture of the fabric and the subtle contours of the sitter's face with economy. This portrait is an example of her ability to convey psychological depth through posture and gesture rather than dramatic action. The red flower serves as the primary visual anchor, providing a necessary contrast to the cooler tones of the dress and the neutral background. The work remains a clear representation of her mature style, where the observation of everyday life is elevated through careful composition and a refined palette.
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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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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
Woman With A Red Zinnia - 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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