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Mrs. Duffee Seated on a Striped Sofa, Reading
Mary Stevenson Cassatt (American, 1844–1926)
1876
Medium/Technique
Oil on panel
Dimensions
34.29 x 26.67 cm (13 1/2 x 10 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of John T. Spaulding
Accession Number48.523
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsPaintings
Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Cassatt settled in Paris in 1875 and became the only American invited to exhibit with the Impressionist group. Like her friend Edgar Degas, she was a figure painter, attracted to intimate views of modern life. Cassatt focused on depicting the domestic and social lives of upper-class women, showing them drinking tea, attending the opera, crocheting, or reading.
Catalogue Raisonné
3 MODELS
InscriptionsUpper left: M.S.Cassatt./Paris/1876.
Provenance1894, given by Mary Elizabeth Galitzin Duffee (the sitter; b. 1847 - d. 1929), Philadelphia to her daughter, Frances Harold Duffee, later Schoff (b. 1871 - d. 1916), Philadelphia [see note 1]; by descent to her sister, Marion Nevil Duffee (b. 1877 - d. 1951), Philadelphia; 1919, sold by Marion Nevil Duffee through Rosenbach Co., Philadelphia, to Henry Douglas Hughes (b. 1869 - d. 1928), Philadelphia [see note 2]. January 28-29, 1926, anonymous sale (consigned by a private collector), American Art Association, New York, lot 167, sold for $350 to John Levy Galleries, New York, probably for Edwin D. Levinson (b. 1876 - d. 1954), Cedarhurst, NY [see note 3]. 1934, sold by Wildenstein and Co., New York to John Taylor Spaulding (b. 1870 - d. 1948), Boston; 1948, bequest of John Taylor Spaulding to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 3, 1948)
NOTES: [1] A label on the verso of the painting reads "Presented to Frances Harold Duffee / by her mother / Mary E. G. Duffee in March 1894." [2] According to the online Mary Cassatt catalogue raisonné (in progress), no. 32 / B47. [3] Levy is recorded as the buyer in Art News (February 6, 1926); Levinson is recorded as the buyer on an annotated photograph held by the Witt Library, Courtauld Institute. Levinson bought and sold other European paintings through John Levy Galleries at this time.
NOTES: [1] A label on the verso of the painting reads "Presented to Frances Harold Duffee / by her mother / Mary E. G. Duffee in March 1894." [2] According to the online Mary Cassatt catalogue raisonné (in progress), no. 32 / B47. [3] Levy is recorded as the buyer in Art News (February 6, 1926); Levinson is recorded as the buyer on an annotated photograph held by the Witt Library, Courtauld Institute. Levinson bought and sold other European paintings through John Levy Galleries at this time.