Susan Seated in a Garden

Painted in 1882 and now in the Mougins Museum of Classical Art, France, this canvas of Susan — likely a model or family acquaintance — seated in a garden belongs to Cassatt's outdoor figure studies from her early Impressionist period. The garden subject allowed her to work with outdoor light and to place a figure within a natural setting in ways that the interior subjects she often preferred did not permit. By 1882 she was a fully committed Impressionist, her handling and palette significantly freed from academic constraints.

The garden setting provides fresh greens and the quality of filtered outdoor light that distinguishes this canvas from Cassatt's indoor subjects. Susan's figure is placed informally within the garden space, her clothing catching the scattered light. Cassatt's palette is fresher and more openly luminous than in her interior works.