Françoise, Holding a Little Dog, Looking Far to the Right

Details

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926)
Françoise, Holding a Little Dog, Looking Far to the Right
signed 'Mary Cassatt' (lower right)
pastel on paper laid down on canvas
21 ¾ x 17 ½ in. (55.2 x 44.5 cm.)
Drawn in 1909

Provenance

Galerie Durand-Ruel et Cie., Paris (probably acquired from the artist, circa March-April 1909).
Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York (acquired from the above, circa June 1928).
Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Booth, Grosse Pointe (acquired from the above, 1947).
By descent from the above to the late owner.

Literature

"Philadelphia Show Honors Work of Mary Cassatt," Art News, vol. 25, May 7, 1927, p. 2 (titled Little Girl with Dog).
R. Edouard-Joseph, Dictionnaire biographique des artistes contemporaines, 1910–1930, Paris, 1930, p. 247 (illustrated; titled Fillette au Chien).
M. Salinger, "On View at the New York Galleries: Pastels by Mary Cassatt, Durand-Ruel Galleries," Parnassus, vol. 4, November 1932, p. 10 (titled Fillette au Chien).
E. Valerio, Mary Cassatt, Paris, 1930 (illustrated, pl. 16; titled Fillette au Chien).
F. Watson, "The Vicissitudes of Women in Art," Sunday Review of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 25, 1934, p. 18 (illustrated; titled Fillet [sic] au Chien).
M. Breuning, "Art World Continues Activity," New York Post, May 25, 1935, p. 20 (titled Child with Dog).
M. Breuning, Mary Cassatt, New York, 1944, p. 11 (illustrated in color; dated 1908 and titled Girl with Dog).
I.S. Monro, K.M. Monro, Index to Reproductions of American Paintings, New York, 1948, p. 125 (titled Girl with Dog).
A.D. Breeskin, Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue of Oils, Pastels, Watercolors and Drawings, Washington, D.C., 1970, p. 195. no. 530 (illustrated; dated circa 1908).
S.G. Lindsay, Mary Cassatt and Philadelphia, exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1985, p. 93 (titled Little Girl with Dog or
Françoise Holding a Little Dog, Looking Far to the Right).
G. Pollock, Mary Cassatt, New York, 1998, p. 27 (illustrated).
Art Institute of Chicago, "Lifetime Exhibition History," Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman, exh. cat., The Art Institute of Chicago, 1998, pp. 360 and 362.

Exhibited

(possibly) Paris, Galerie J. Allard, La Parisienne, April 1910, p.12, no. 16 (titled Fillette au Chien).
New York, Durand-Ruel Galleries, Paintings and Pastels by Mary Cassatt, November-December 1920, no. 1 (titled Fillette au Chien).
New York, Durand-Ruel Galleries, Paintings, Pastels, Drypoints, and Watercolors by Mary Cassatt, April 1923, no. 10 (titled Fillette au Chien).
New York, Durand-Ruel Galleries, Paintings and Pastels by Mary Cassatt, October-November 1926, no. 19 (titled Fillette au Chien).
The Art Institute of Chicago, Mary Cassatt, December 1926-January 1927, no. 8 (titled Girl with Dog).
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Mary Cassatt, April-May 1927, no. 12 (titled Little Girl with Dog).
Philadelphia, McClees Galleries, Paintings and Etchings by Mary Cassatt, January-February 1931, no. 11 (titled Fillette au Chien).
New York, Durand-Ruel Galleries, Pastels by Mary Cassatt, October-November 1932, no. 3 (titled Fillette au Chien)
St. Louis, Missouri, City Art Museum, Oils and Pastels by Mary Cassatt, December 1933-January 1934, no. 17 (titled Little Girl with a Dog).
Dallas, Texas, State Fair of Texas Art Gallery, The Forty-Eighth Annual Exhibition of Paintings, Water Colors, Sculpture, Graphic Arts, October 1934, no. 25 (titled Young Girl with Dog).
New York, Durand-Ruel Galleries, Paintings and Pastels by Mary Cassatt, February-March 1935, no. 1 (titled Young Girl with Dog).
New York, Marie Sterner Galleries, Portraits of Children, June 1935.
New York, Portraits, Inc., Portraits of Children by American Artists for the Benefit of the School Art League of New York, November 1944, no. 14 (titled Little Girl with Dog.)
New York, Wildenstein & Co. Inc., Mary Cassatt, October-December 1947, p. 42, no. 46 (illustrated, p. 50; dated 1908 and titled Girl with a Dog).

Further Details

This work is included in the Cassatt Committee's revision of Adelyn Doehme Breeskin's catalogue raisonné of the works of Mary Cassatt.

Conditions of sale

Lot Essay

Françoise, Holding a Little Dog, Looking Far to the Right is one of about fourteen works in oil and pastel from a series focusing on the young model Françoise. 1908 marked the final year in which Cassatt explored the theme of the single child, a highly acclaimed subject that she explored throughout her career in various media. The artist heavily committed herself to the subject in this period, repeatedly using young models like Françoise from the area around her country home near Le Mesnil-Théribus, Oise. Though devoid of a maternal figure, works such the present lot incorporate the overarching theme of maternity for which Cassatt is best known by depicting the embrace of a small pet. Here, Françoise holds a Belgium griffon, a breed which Cassatt kept as early as the 1870s and that appear in pictures throughout her career.
In this work, the young girl imitates a mother's affectionate hold of an infant in her protective embrace of the little dog, capturing the concept of "playing mother." The affected maternity is simultaneously endearing and a vehicle for social commentary. "To some extent Cassatt's exploration of the child–not the baby–in adult costume, pose and expression reflects aspects of early-twentieth-century psychology, absorbed by Cassatt in her wide reading of sociological, psychological, and parapsychological literature" (N.M. Mathews, Mary Cassatt, New York, 1987, p. 125). Françoise, Holding a Little Dog, Looking Far to the Right is a suberb and lusciously executed example of not only the artist's mature works, but also of the most celebrated themes of her entire oeuvre.

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