Sleepy Baby 1910

Mary Cassatt made Sleepy Baby with pastel on paper, but the date is unknown. The marks are gentle, caressing, and tender, like the touch of a mother. You can see the sensitivity in every stroke, and the way she builds up the forms with soft, feathery lines. The pastel is applied in layers, creating a subtle, luminous effect. Look at the way the colors blend and merge, especially in the baby's skin. It’s amazing how she captures the warmth and softness of a baby with just a few strokes of pastel. This is no oil painting where she could blend the colours and hide the strokes. The pastel medium forces her to commit with each mark. The individual marks are right there on the surface. The way Cassatt handles the pastel reminds me a bit of Degas, another painter who also explored the use of the medium to capture fleeting moments of everyday life. Both artists were interested in depicting the world around them with honesty and immediacy. This painting, like much of Cassatt’s work, refuses a fixed reading. It is open to multiple interpretations and invites us to bring our own experiences and perspectives to it.