The Fitting 1890 - 1891

Curator: Ah, here we have Mary Cassatt's "The Fitting," dating from 1890-1891. Note how Cassatt masterfully employs watercolor in this piece. It's a scene of quiet domesticity. Editor: It's strange how the scene almost dissolves. You know, like a memory half-recalled. The striped dresses, that slightly chaotic wallpaper… there's a tender impermanence about it all. Curator: Yes, "impermanence" really strikes me as well. The looseness of Cassatt’s application of the watercolor emphasizes the provisional nature of labor involved in garment production and, for that matter, class presentation in general. There’s a definite link between artistic technique and subject matter at play here. Editor: I love how the seamstress, hunched over, seems to be absorbed into her work. There's such dedication and intimacy…she's practically a part of the dressmaking process itself. The scene reminds me of how, as children, my sister and I made dresses from my mother’s fabric remnants, but never with this degree of seriousness. Curator: Certainly, the social context informs this. Cassatt highlights a traditionally feminized form of labor but at the same time draws attention to the process by which the female subject herself is “produced” through practices of fitting and tailoring. It speaks volumes about societal constraints and constructed identities. Editor: Yet, there's also a beautiful vulnerability in it all. That's the feeling I keep circling back to, which feels timeless in this seemingly passing moment. Curator: Precisely. That interplay between social constraint and individual expression makes the work enduringly powerful, even today. Editor: Agreed. "The Fitting" has left me pondering those very dualities. I find myself filled with questions about gender and social labor. Curator: And those are exactly the kinds of considerations Cassatt compels us to think about, centuries later. A subtle revolution on paper.