In the Garden
Mary Cassatt·1903
Historical Context
In the Garden (1903, Detroit Institute of Arts) belongs to Cassatt's late career, when her country home and its gardens had become an increasingly important setting for her work. By 1903 her eyesight was declining, but she continued to produce oil paintings of figures in outdoor settings with an authority that compensated technical simplification with compositional confidence. Garden subjects — figures surrounded by flowers and greenery — allowed her to combine her primary interest in the human figure with the decorative abundance of the natural world.
Technical Analysis
The garden setting provides a rich, variegated backdrop of greens and floral color against which Cassatt places her figures. Her late technique is broad and summary, building the garden setting with energetic, gestural strokes while maintaining closer observation in the treatment of the figure's face. Warm outdoor light unifies the composition.
