The Banjo Lesson 1894

Editor: So, here we have Mary Cassatt’s "The Banjo Lesson" from 1894, rendered in aquatint, drypoint, and etching. The softness of the lines creates a really intimate feeling. How would you interpret this piece, especially considering her choice of techniques? Curator: Well, considering the context, the labor involved in creating this image is worth considering. Cassatt deliberately uses a process-heavy, multi-step printing method – aquatint, drypoint, etching. This speaks to a challenge to the ready-made consumption of art. Are we considering here a comment on the slow, deliberate production of art versus industrialization? Editor: That’s fascinating! So, by choosing such laborious methods, is she elevating craft? Curator: Precisely. And we must consider what it means for a woman, particularly one from her social class, to engage in what were traditionally considered craft-based activities. Was she attempting to validate the skill and the labor inherent in such processes? Editor: It does make you wonder about the power dynamics involved – not just gender, but class. Was she interested in bringing those tensions to the forefront, or was she trying to negotiate them in some way? Curator: Exactly. Also, we must think of how images, reproduced in multiple, relate to issues of the time like mass production, commodity, value. Are we consuming an image or appreciating the effort? This is very telling in what was once an object for only the elite. Editor: I never really thought about that, but this gives me such a different way of understanding not just the image itself, but also Cassatt’s engagement with the artistic landscape of her time. Curator: It’s crucial to consider those aspects when examining Cassatt’s work. Hopefully it provided a new lense to view art production as more than pretty images.