The Young Girls
Mary Cassatt·1885
Historical Context
Painted in 1885 and now in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, this canvas of two young girls belongs to the multi-figure compositions Cassatt produced in the mid-1880s, showing her developing skill at organizing more complex figure groups within a single canvas. Two-figure compositions allowed her to explore social and familial relationships between women and girls, the relative position and interaction of the figures suggesting broader themes of companionship and social life.
Technical Analysis
The two girls are placed in a naturalistic grouping that suggests familiarity and ease between them. Cassatt uses her characteristic varied brushwork — careful in the faces, freer in the clothing and background — to give the composition both specificity and painterly liveliness. The palette is fresh and appropriate to young feminine subjects.
