Image source: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). View source
Woman with a Pearl Necklace in a Loge
- Artist
- Mary Cassatt (1844–1926)
- Date
- 1879
- Dimensions
- 81.3 x 59.7 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, United States
This painting shows a young woman with red hair, in a pink evening gown and a pearl necklace, seated in a box at the Paris Opéra. Behind her, a large mirror reflects the glittering tiers of the auditorium and its chandeliers.
A closer look
The model was the artist's sister Lydia, who often posed for her. Cassatt makes the theatre itself a spectacle: the reflected balconies and lights dissolve into a shimmer of gold and red, painted with quick, loose strokes. Lydia, holding a fan, seems at once relaxed and on display, both spectator and object of other people's gaze. The painting was shown at the fourth Impressionist exhibition in 1879, Cassatt's first with the group, and was praised by critics.
More by Mary Cassatt
In this gallery
Famous works elsewhere
- The Boating Party 1893