Beyond the Gallery Walls:
Renoir, Cassatt & Dean Mitchell
The art world is never confined to a single museum, collection, or gallery. This month, important developments surrounding Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Mary Cassatt, and Dean Mitchell offer a timely reminder of why these artists—and the intimate, human subjects they chose—continue to resonate with collectors today.
Renoir: A Reminder of Art’s Cultural Value
News from the French Riviera this week brought unsettling attention to Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Two paintings remain missing after thieves targeted the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, the artist’s former home and final residence.
The incident is a sobering reminder that great works of art are more than beautiful objects: they are irreplaceable cultural records. Renoir’s portraits, particularly, preserve an extraordinary sense of tenderness, personality, and everyday life. Their intimate scale and emotional immediacy are part of what makes them so enduring.
At Cutter & Cutter Fine Art, we are pleased to present several exceptional Renoir works centered on the human figure and the artist’s gift for portraiture:
- L’Enfant au Biscuit — a tender color lithograph of Renoir’s son Jean, later one of the great filmmakers of the twentieth century.
- Mère et Enfant — an intimate maternal image that reflects one of the most enduring subjects in Impressionist art.
- Paul Cézanne and Richard Wagner — compelling portraits of two towering creative figures of Renoir’s era.
- Claude Renoir, La Tête Baissée — another deeply personal image from within the artist’s own family.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, L’Enfant au Biscuit (Jean Renoir), color lithograph, c. 1898.
Mary Cassatt at the Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago has just opened Mary Cassatt: After Impressionism, on view through January 3, 2027. The exhibition offers an important opportunity to reconsider Cassatt not only as an Impressionist, but as an artist whose ambitious later work expanded the possibilities of portraiture, domestic imagery, and printmaking.
For collectors, Cassatt’s prints remain among the most rewarding examples of nineteenth-century graphic art. She brought extraordinary psychological depth to scenes that might at first seem quiet or private: a mother holding her child, a woman dressing an infant, a small domestic gesture rendered with remarkable precision.
We are especially pleased that the Art Institute is featuring examples of the same two Cassatt compositions that have passed through our gallery—though, of course, the museum impressions are different impressions from our former works:
- Gardner Held by His Mother, an etching with drypoint from 1887. Our example was the only known state and signed in pencil by the artist.
- The Stocking, an etching with drypoint from circa 1890. Our impression was the fifth state of six, from an edition of just 25, and signed by Cassatt.
These works demonstrate why Cassatt remains so essential. Her art is technically sophisticated, historically important, and emotionally immediate—qualities that make her original prints as compelling in a private collection as they are on museum walls.
View Our Available Cassatt Collection HERE.
Dean Mitchell: A Contemporary Master of the Figure
The conversation around figurative art is not limited to the nineteenth century. We were also delighted to see Dean Mitchell’s work recognized through the Crosby Kemper Museum featured in Lie. Sit. Stand. Be Still.Lie. Sit. Stand. Be Still. The exhibition was organized by Amy Kligman, Independent Curator and features 27 Participating Major Contemporary Artists. Including: Francis Bacon, Helen Frankenthaler, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, Alfred Stieglitz and David Hockney.
Mitchell’s watercolors and acrylics are rooted in close observation, but they reach far beyond likeness. His figures possess dignity, stillness, and a sense of lived experience. Like the finest portraitists of earlier generations, he allows a subject’s presence—not simply the image—to carry the work.
Explore several of Dean Mitchell’s available figurative works:
Whether working in luminous watercolor or richly layered acrylic, Mitchell reminds us that figurative art remains one of the most direct ways an artist can communicate humanity, memory, and connection.
Dean Mitchell, Rose.
View Available Works by Dean Mitchell.
Collecting Art That Continues the Conversation
From Renoir’s family portraits and Cassatt’s masterful prints to Dean Mitchell’s contemporary figures, these artists share a belief in the expressive power of the human subject. Their works invite us to slow down, look closely, and find significance in moments that might otherwise pass unnoticed.
As museums, scholars, and collectors continue to bring renewed attention to these artists, we invite you to explore the works that connect this larger cultural conversation to our gallery in Historic Downtown St. Augustine.
Explore our collection, or contact Cutter & Cutter Fine Art to learn more about available works.