Simone in White Bonnet Seated with Clasped Hands (no.1) 1903

Mary Cassatt rendered this pastel drawing of a young girl, sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. Pastels, which are essentially pure pigment held together with a binder, offer a directness and immediacy. Cassatt's use of broad, visible strokes creates a sense of texture, almost as if you could feel the softness of the girl's bonnet and dress. It’s interesting to consider pastel not as a lesser medium, but as a deliberate choice. Cassatt, working in a male-dominated art world, embraced a medium often associated with sketching and preliminary studies, elevating it to a finished work of art. The pastel medium allows for a quick, almost spontaneous capture of light and color, suiting the Impressionist aesthetic Cassatt embraced. But it also embodies a certain intimacy, a sense of the artist working closely with the subject. It invites us to consider the context of its making, the choices of both artist and sitter, and the subtle defiance of artistic norms.