Sketch of Ellen My Cassatt in a Big Blue Hat 1905

Mary Cassatt made this sketch of Ellen Mary Cassatt in a Big Blue Hat with oil on canvas. Cassatt's mark making is so direct, confident. She's not fussing around trying to hide the process, right? The way she's laying down those brushstrokes, it’s all about immediacy, about catching a fleeting moment. And look at that hat! Those strokes of white and blue, they're almost abstract on their own, but together they create this sense of volume, of something airy and light sitting right there on the girl's head. The paint is fairly thin, and you can see the canvas underneath, which gives it all a sense of freshness. Notice how the brushstrokes around the hat kinda dissolve into the background. There’s a real kinship between Cassatt’s work and that of Berthe Morisot, another Impressionist who was interested in similar themes and approaches to paint handling. It's like they’re having a conversation across canvases, you know? Art is an exchange, and it’s always evolving.