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After-Dinner Coffee (verso)

Mary Cassatt

1889

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Impressionism Realism Late 19th Century

Dominant colour

After-Dinner Coffee (verso) is a 1889 by Mary Cassatt, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Mary Cassatt
When & what style?: 1889 · Impressionism
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

You see a woman sitting alone at a small table after dinner. She holds a coffee cup to her lips. Soft light falls on her face. The room feels quiet and private. This painting comes from a series Cassatt did in the 1880s. She used pastels here, not oil paint. The colors are warm and calm, like a late evening. Look for another Cassatt work called *The Child's Bath*.

The story of this work

Overview

Cassatt exhibited prints for the first time in 1880 at the fifth Impressionist exhibition. As the decade progressed, she continued to show her graphic work alongside pastels and paintings. In the spring of 1890, at the Deuxième Exposition de Peintres-Graveurs, she showed a group of drypoints, remarkable in their delicacy and precision, as well as a group of prints made with a combination of aquatint and softground etching that appeared quickly drawn and spontaneous. After-Dinner Coffee is a study for a softground etching with aquatint.

Read the full account in the museum source.