Mother and Child (The Oval Mirror)

Mother and Child (The Oval Mirror) is an oil-on-canvas painting by Mary Cassatt. The painting depicts a mother and her child in front of a mirror. The painting provides a glimpse of the domestic life of a mother and her child, evoking religious iconography from the Italian Renaissance. However, portrayals of a mother and her child are common in Cassatt's work, so it is possible that this similarity is coincidental rather than intentional. It is unclear when exactly Cassatt painted Mother and Child, but it was acquired by dealer Durand-Ruel in 1898. Durand-Ruel sold the painting to the Havemeyers in 1899. The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired the painting in 1929. Context From 1881 to 1891, Cassatt's reputation grew as she began to focus on mother-and-child subjects. In addition to Mother and Child (The Oval Mirror), Cassatt painted several other depictions of mother-and-child subjects. Revisiting the same subject was common among Impressionists, such as Monet's repeated depiction of haystacks. Prior to focusing on mothers and their children, Cassatt typically other scenes of daily life. Cassatt's focus on the mother-and-child format during the 1880s has sometimes been interpreted as related to the rise of Symbolism in French art during this decade. Analysis