The Coiffure (c. 1891)
Technique: Giclée quality print
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Mary Cassatt's "The Coiffure," created around 1891, presents an intimate moment captured with delicate lines and expressive strokes. In this evocative piece, Cassatt depicts a woman in a private act of grooming. We see her bent over, her long hair cascading as she seems to comb or perhaps braid it. The close perspective creates a feeling of immediacy and personal intrusion into a quiet, solitary scene.Cassatt's use of light pencil and subtle shading highlights the texture and flow of the hair, indicating her keen observation skills and mastery in rendering human forms with realism and empathy. The background is sketchily indicated, pushing our focus firmly onto the figure and her actions.As a prominent figure in the Impressionist movement, Cassatt often portrayed the lives of women, usually in domestic settings. "The Coiffure" is no exception, as it explores themes of femininity and daily routine, subjects that remain enduring in their relevance and sensitivity.
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Mary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. She was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh’s North Side), but lived much of her adult life in France where she befriended Edgar Degas and exhibited with the Impressionists. Cassatt often created images of the social and private lives of women, with particular emphasis on the intimate bonds between mothers and children.
She was described by Gustave Geffroy as one of "les trois grandes dames" (the three great ladies) of Impressionism alongside Marie Bracquemond and Berthe Morisot.In 1879, Diego Martelli compared her to Degas, as they both sought to depict movement, light, and design in the most modern sense.