2-735-024 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Mimi as a Brunette, 1889. In 1888, with the goal of improving her draftsmanship, Cassatt began experimenting with the rigorous technique of drypoint. The result was a group of prints whose coolness and deliberation was derived from the careful incision of delicate lines into the copperplate. The subject of this spare, elegant portrait is Cassatt's second cousin, Mary (Mimi) Johnston. She and her husband, William Milligan Sloane, a professor of classics at Princeton, frequently traveled to Europe, and spent long periods of time in Paris where Sloan did research for his exhaustive study of Napoleon. The room, a vase of flowers on a table, and even the figure's body are summarily described. All of Cassatt's attention was focused on Mimi's face, her large, dark eyes, and upswept black hair. Her gaze is unfocused, her thoughts apparently elsewhere.