Little Girl in a Blue Armchair, 1878 by Mary Cassatt - Essay Example

The focus of Mary Cassatt is on the little girl, illuminated from the forefront with the intention of revealing her mannerisms, which is common with young children (Pollock, 2012). Mary Cassatt’s unique mode of painting coupled with her interest in reproducing children's portraits grasped my attention during one of her recent visits to the National Gallery of Art, DC (National Gallery of Art, 2012). Consequently, this aroused my interest in her paintings because they contrasted with other numerous artworks in the art gallery, especially those of her male counterparts. In addition, after intensive research, I unveiled that she preferred featuring children in her paintings because they reveal their natural selves contrary to the adults (National Gallery of Art, 2012). Besides Mary Cassatt being a woman, her paintings comprise the most praised impressionism artworks done by different reputable artists in her time (Harris & Cassatt, 2007). This is contrary to the past when women were never featured anywhere in the male-dominated field of art. The past “segregation” and negative perception towards women venturing into the field of art have recently yielded to the rise of feminist movements, for example, "Guerrilla Girls" (Desmond, 2011).

Material and Formal properties

            In this image, Mary Cassatt skillfully utilizes paint together with an oil canvas and brush, to show her prowess in transmitting ideas besides bringing out the aspect of impressionism (Harris & Cassatt, 2007). This is by selectively assigning all the objects in the picture their respective natural colors, besides varying light intensity meant to show their different distances from the front position. For instance, despite the little child’s image tilted slightly from the center, it has high illumination compared to both the dog and rear objects (chairs) (Cassatt, 2008). Mainly, this is the painter’s unique technique to draw the viewers’ attention toward her focus, which is the little girl. The light should be emanating from the rear windows, but she goes ahead to provide her illumination (Harris & Cassatt, 2007). Consequently, this aids Mary Cassatt to bring out the aspect of naturalism represented by the little girl’s posture as she fidgets in the armchair, while in her private world of thoughts. The essence of negative space in this portrait is to create an emphasis on depth, which is apparent from the little girl’s position towards the rear windows. Hence, it contributes to the creation of harmony where the objects comprising the entire picture do not overlap disorderly (Cassatt, 2008).

Content

            Mary Cassatt’s use of this image opens a window for the viewers to explore the lives of young children. The picture demonstrates that children in certain instances become disinterested and bored despite being in the presence of things, which they usually treasure at their age. For example, in this image, Mary Cassatt paints the little child with her favorite pet, the next chair, in a beautiful room (Cassatt, 2012). However, not any of these things can sway the little girl from engaging in deep thoughts. This influences the viewer to start speculating what could be the thoughts of the little child, hence sharing in her world of thoughts. The image’s title also contributes to the mystery of the child’s thoughts, regardless of the viewer’s first influence by the image itself (National Gallery of Art, 2012). In addition, the essence of the sleeping pet in the next chair is to emphasize what the little girl is experiencing. This is evident from the pet’s posture where it seems to be sharing the same predicament (disinterested and bored) with its owner.

Context

            Mary Cassatt’s image represents the impressionist period’s artwork, which is evident from her intensive use of brush and color to express emotions (Harris & Cassatt, 2007). Probably, maybe this is due to the influence of Edgar who was her mentor and role model while living in France. Afterward, Cassatt specialized in featuring little children in all the images she drew, which up to date characterize her artwork (National Gallery of Art, 2012). Hence, this differentiated her work from many impressionists who then adopted the conventional ways of conveying information to their potential viewers (Pollock, 2012).