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Gardner Held by His Mother

Gardner Held by His Mother
Etching with drypoint | c. 1887
Image size: 8.3" x 5.5"
Only state known | Signed in pencil by the artist

With Gardner Held by His Mother, Mary Cassatt presents a deeply moving portrayal of the maternal bond—rendered with elegance, immediacy, and emotional insight. A young child, Gardner, nestles securely in his mother’s arms, their forms intertwined in a moment of protection and affection. With a few masterful strokes of etching and drypoint, Cassatt evokes a timeless sense of care and connection that resonates across generations.

This impression is from the only known state of the print and is signed in pencil by the artist—an exceptional feature that greatly enhances both its rarity and collector value. Created in 1887, this work comes from Cassatt’s most celebrated period as a printmaker, when she was fully immersed in exploring the expressive power of line and composition under the influence of both Edgar Degas and Japanese art.

Gardner Held by His Mother is held in numerous major museum collections, including:

  • Smithsonian Design Museum (NYC)

  • Art Institute of Chicago

  • National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.)

  • Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

  • Philadelphia Museum of Art

  • National Gallery of Canada

  • Butler Institute of American Art, and more.

This institutional presence not only attests to the historical importance of the work, but also underscores its desirability among both public and private collectors.

  • Signed impressions of Cassatt’s original etchings are highly sought after and increasingly scarce on the market.

  • The subject—maternal tenderness—represents the central theme of her finest work, expressed here with restraint, grace, and psychological depth.

  • The fact that this is the only known state adds an additional layer of rarity and importance.

  • A museum-held image, bearing the hand-signed mark of one of America’s most celebrated Impressionists—Gardner Held by His Mother is both a deeply personal statement and an artwork of enduring cultural significance.

SKU: M-CASSAT-101227 Artist: Tag:
Nicole Wolff
Gallery Director

Mary Stevenson Cassatt (May 22, 1844 – June 14, 1926) 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.

From 1860 to 1862, she studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. By 1865, she had convinced her parents to let her study in Paris, where she took private lessons from leading academic painter Jean-Léon Gérôme, copied works of the old masters, and went sketching. She stayed in Courance and Écouen and studied with Édouard Frère and Paul Soyer. In 1868, Cassatt’s painting The Mandolin Player (private collection) was accepted at the Paris Salon, the first time her work was represented there. After three-and-a-half years in France, the Franco-Prussian War interrupted Cassatt’s studies and she returned to Philadelphia in the late summer of 1870.

Cassatt returned to Europe in 1871. She spent eight months in Parma, Italy, in 1872, studying the paintings of Correggio and Parmigianino and working with the advice of Carlo Raimondi, head of the department of engraving at the Parma Academy. In 1873, she visited Spain, Belgium, and Holland to study and copy the works of Velázquez, Rubens, and Hals. In June 1874, Cassatt settled in Paris, where she began to show regularly in the Salons, and where her parents and sister Lydia joined her in 1877. That same year, Edgar Degas invited her to join the group of independent artists later known as the Impressionists. The only American officially associated with the group, Cassatt exhibited in four of their eight exhibitions, in 1879, 1880, 1881, and 1886. Under their influence, Cassatt revised her technique, composition, and use of color and light, manifesting her admiration for the works of the French avant-garde, especially Degas and Manet. Degas, her chief mentor, provided criticism of her work, offered advice on technique, and encouraged her experiments in printmaking. Like Degas, she was chiefly interested in figure compositions. During the late 1870s and early 1880s, the subjects of her works were her family (especially her sister Lydia), the theater, and the opera. Later she made a specialty of the mother and child theme, which she treated with warmth and naturalness in paintings, pastels, and prints.

Cassatt’s role as an advisor to art collectors benefited many public and private collections in the United States. From her early days in Paris, she encouraged the collection of old masters and the French avant-garde. In 1901, she accompanied Mr. and Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer on a collecting trip in Italy and Spain. Cassatt had known Mrs. Havemeyer before her marriage. In 1873, she had encouraged the then seventeen-year-old Louisine Elder to buy a pastel by Degas, and the two women became close friends. Cassatt was eventually instrumental in shaping the Havemeyer collection, most of which is now in the Metropolitan Museum.

Failing eyesight severely curtailed Cassatt’s work after 1900. She gave up printmaking in 1901, and in 1904 stopped painting. She spent most of the war years in Grasse and died in 1926 at her country home, Château de Beaufresne, at Le Mesnil-Théribus, Oise.

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.