Modern Life
Mary Cassatt
The Tea
c. 1880
Oil on canvas, 64.8 × 92.1 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Two women sit over afternoon tea; the guest, still in hat and gloves, hides her face behind her cup. The silver service in front hints at a long, distinguished family history.
- The repeated ovals of cups, tray, hats and faces carry the picture more than the social call does. Impressionists often put color and shape ahead of storytelling.
- Shown at the fifth Impressionist exhibition in 1880, where critics were divided.
- The sitters are usually called Lydia Cassatt and a family friend.
- The silver was first made in Philadelphia around 1813 for Cassatt's grandmother and enlarged by her mother.
- The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, bought it from the dealer Dikran Kelekian in 1942.
Receiving callers for afternoon tea was a regular part of life for upper-middle-class women in Paris. Cassatt painted the custom several times around 1880.
Themes
Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain