68117: Mary Cassatt (American, 1844-1926) Portrait of M

Mary Cassatt (American, 1844-1926) Portrait of Madame Sisley, 1873 Oil on board 7 x 5-1/2 inches (17.8 x 14.0 cm) Signed, dated, titled, and inscribed upper left: Mad. Sisley / M.S. Cassatt / Paris 1873 PROVENANCE: Hirschl and Adler Galleries, New York; Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Jacobs, acquired from the above, 1978; Luhring Augustine, New York, acquired from the above, 1986; Private collection, Toronto, Canada, acquired from the above, 1987; By descent to the present owner. EXHIBITED: Isetan Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan, and elsewhere, "The Art of Mary Cassatt 1844-1926," June 11-July 7, 1981, no. 6. LITERATURE: The Art of Mary Cassatt 1844-1926, exhibition catalogue, Tokyo, Japan, 1981, n.p., no. 6, illustrated; N.M. Matthews, Mary Cassatt, New York, 1987, p. 22, 23, 29, illustrated; D.B. Dearinger, Masterworks of American Impressionism from the Pfeil Collection: Catalogue of Works, Alexandria, Virginia, 1992, pp. 39, 278; N.M. Matthews, Mary Cassatt: A Life, New York, 1994, pp. 88, 108. This work is listed as no. 958 in Adelyn Dohme Breeksin's unpublished addendum to Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oils, Pastels, Watercolors, and Drawings and as no. 14 in the Cassatt Committee's Mary Cassatt: A New Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Pastels, and Watercolors Originally Published by Adelyn Dohme Breekskin. Intimate in scale and delicate in execution, the present portrait of Madame Alfred Sisley, née Marie Lescouezec, by Mary Cassatt provides a unique firsthand insight into the personal relationship between the American artist and her French Impressionist peers. This jewel-like work was painted in 1873, the same year that a group of artists including Sisley, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Cézanne, Morisot, Degas, and others founded the Société Anonyme Coopérative des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs, with the purpose of exhibiting their artworks independently of the Paris Salon. In the 1860s, paintings by this group of artists who would later become known as the Impressionists had been routinely rejected by the Salon jury, who favored the traditional French Academic style. Eschewing the linear perspective, idealized forms, and historic subject matter of academic art, the Impressionists instead aimed to capture an impression of life with their works: an ephemeral moment in time reproduced on canvas. Featuring broken brushstrokes, an emphasis on the optical effects of light and its changing qualities, as well as ordinary, everyday subject matter, their works were considered revolutionary and faced harsh opposition from the conventional art community in France. It was during this period that Cassatt, who had been raised in Pittsburgh and studied early on at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, was coming of age as a young artist. She moved to Paris in 1866, and because women could not yet attend the École des Beaux-Arts, applied to study privately with masters from the school. Cassatt was accepted to train with Jean-Léon Gérôme, and augmented her lessons with daily copying in the Louvre and augmented her lessons with daily copying in the Louvre. The museum also served as a social place for Frenchmen and American female students, who, like Cassatt, were not allowed to attend where the avant-garde socialized. By 1868 one of Cassatt's paintings, A Mandoline Player, was accepted for the first time by the selection jury for the Paris Salon. Along with Elizabeth Jane Gardner, Cassatt was one of two American women to first exhibit in the Salon. She continued to submit works to the Salon for a decade, often with frustration at finding that works by female artists were repeatedly dismissed unless the artist had a friend or ally on the jury. In 1877, both her entries were rejected, and for the first time in seven years, she had no works accepted to the Salon. It was at this low point for the artist that she was invited by Edgar Degas to show her works with the group. She felt immediately at ease with the avant-garde group, and joined their cause enthusiastically. Unable to attend cafes with the male Impressionists without attracting unfavorable attention, she met with them privately and at exhibitions, and her style developed a novel spontaneity during this period. Previously a studio-bound artist, she had adopted the practice of carrying a sketchbook with her while out-of-doors or at the theater, and recording the scenes she saw. Though much has been documented about Cassatt's close relationship with Degas, as well as her friendship with the only other female in the group, Berthe Morisot, little is known about her association with Alfred Sisley and his longtime companion, who is the subject of this portrait. Eugénie Lescouezec, who was usually known as Marie, met Sisley in Paris in 1866. Though she and Sisley wouldn't marry until 1897, Marie bore two children to him in the late 1860s: son Pierre, and daughter Jeanne. The intimate size of the present work and immediacy of the composition suggest that Cassatt painted it as a memento or pochade rather than a formal portrait, which adds to the intrigue of the relationship between the two women, as well as the enigmatic circumstances surrounding the work. Though its minute scale may suggest a sketch, the opacity and bold palette of this portrait, along with its fine detail, attest to its finished state. HID03101062020 © 2020 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved