Françoise, Holding a Little Dog, Looking Far to the Right 1909

Mary Cassatt created this pastel drawing of a girl and her dog sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. Pastels are pure pigment, ground and formed into sticks; as a medium, they occupy a space between painting and drawing. Cassatt takes full advantage of this, using layered strokes to build up the forms of the girl and her pet. The loose, expressive handling is typical of the Impressionists, with whom Cassatt exhibited. Interestingly, pastel was often seen as a suitable medium for women artists, thought to be less serious than oil paint. Cassatt turned this association to her advantage. She fully mastered the technique, using it to create intimate, insightful portraits like this one. The immediacy of pastel allowed her to capture fleeting moments and subtle expressions, revealing the inner lives of her subjects. This work invites us to consider how so-called "women's work" can be a powerful form of expression, challenging traditional hierarchies of art and craft.