‘Woman with a Fan’, by Mary Cassat
From Mary Stevenson Cassat [22 May 1844 – 14 June 1926], ‘Woman with a Fan’, c. 1878/1879.
Miss Mary Ellison, c. 1880, oil on canvas
Chester Dale Collection – National Gallery of Art, Washington
This painting is the second of two portraits by Mary Cassatt thought to be of Mary Ellison. Cassatt painted the first in 1877, shortly after she met Miss Ellison through their mutual friend, Louise Waldron Elder (later Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, a well-known American art collector and a patron of Cassatt). Cassatt does not flatter but, rather, concentrates on Miss Ellison’s contemplative mood.
In this painting, Cassatt demonstrates her affinities with the impressionists. Her brushwork is open and sketchy, and she favors a strong compositional structure over pictorial detail. The mirror behind Ellison was a device the artist used often; its presence allowed the expansion of the composition’s implied space to include areas that the viewer could not otherwise see. Via.
António Branco Almeida
Ana Margarida Lopes
Visita Guiada
O Universo Numa Casca de Noz 
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