Simone Seated c. 1903

Curator: This light pencil sketch captures a young girl named Simone, seated in a chair. It's a work by Mary Cassatt, dating back to around 1903. Editor: The immediacy of the work really strikes me. There’s a quiet vulnerability in her gaze, and the soft lines suggest a fleeting moment captured. It almost feels like peeking into a private world. Curator: Absolutely. Cassatt often depicted women and children, but not always in the sentimental way that was typical at the time. In her practice, Cassatt was influenced by the Impressionists and by Japanese woodblock prints; tell me how do you see that influence in this work? Editor: I see that influence mainly in Cassatt's focus on capturing fleeting moments of everyday life. The Japanese influence comes across most powerfully in the sketch-like character of the marks that make the composition; one mark describes the line, the other expresses the tonal value. There are precedents, but it does feel radical to expose those preliminary marks in a portrait. I love the way Cassatt draws the relationship between subject and domestic space to speak about women's roles. I wonder if we can also examine her work with respect to issues of agency, domesticity and representation in her work. After all, even though Cassatt created portraits, they're from a particular class and cultural viewpoint. Who gets to look at whom? Curator: That's a powerful question! And Cassatt, as a woman artist in a male-dominated art world, undoubtedly had her own unique perspective on those power dynamics. I think she's definitely opening doors to conversations around what it meant to see, to be seen, particularly for women and children in the domestic sphere. There’s almost a comfortable casualness. Simone doesn't appear to be performing or posing but simply…being. Editor: I agree, and this challenges conventional portraiture, which has often reinforced rigid social hierarchies and gender roles. Curator: It's like Cassatt's subtly shifting the lens, inviting us to consider the inner lives of her subjects, giving visibility to those perspectives and lived experiences in her society. Editor: In the end, what resonates most is that sense of shared humanity that transcends historical context and cultural boundaries. Curator: Absolutely. And maybe the pencil lines invite us to complete the image with our imagination, recognizing ourselves in that intimate moment.