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In this intimate double portrait, Madame Gaillard and her daughter Marie-Thérèse sit close together. They are strikingly different physical types: Madame Gaillard is fair and auburn-haired, while her daughter has an olive complexion and long dark hair. They are elegantly dressed in dark gowns with fashionable puffed sleeves. Marie-Thérèse drapes her arm over her mother’s shoulder in an affectionate and casual gesture, gazing contemplatively at the viewer. Her mother, in contrast, gazes off into the distance with an unreadable expression—perhaps quiet sadness, perhaps simple introspection.
With her portraits, Cassatt aspired to do more than simply capture a likeness. Her experiments with color, form, and space were quite radical. In Madame Gaillard and Her Daughter Marie-Thérèse, Cassatt uses yellows and blues to create the highlights on their shiny black gowns, and blues and purples to suggest the shadows on their faces. The blocky forms in the background emphasize the flatness of the picture surface and reject a realistic recession into space, an effect which certainly owes something to Cassatt’s interest in Japanese prints. The result of these stylistic choices is a decorative surface pattern that enlivens the quiet scene.
Cassatt used an extraordinary variety of media in her work, from oils to pastels to gouache to watercolor to drypoint and aquatint, sometimes combining these media in innovative ways. A survey of her work in the 1890s reveals that, in addition to engaging in experiments in printmaking inspired by Japanese prints, Cassatt turned often to pastels in her portraits of mothers and children. Perhaps the immediacy of the medium appealed to her, as she could quickly capture the likenesses of her subjects while they sat for her. Her expert handling of the medium is revealed in the skill she demonstrates in her use of highlights and shadow.
When Barbara Babcock Millhouse, founding president of Reynolda House Museum of American Art, bought this pastel from Hirschl and Adler Galleries in New York in 1969, it was entitled Madame Meerson and Her Daughter. In 1997, Judith Barter and Kevin Sharp, curators at the Art Institute of Chicago, suggested that the sitters had been incorrectly identified and that the correct title for the painting should be Madame Gaillard and Her Daughter Marie-Thérèse.
The curators made the discovery as they were conducting research for the exhibition Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman at the Art Institute. Mr. Sharp knew of a portrait of Marie-Thérèse Gaillard that was coming up for sale at Christie’s and was struck by the resemblance of the sitter in that portrait to the young girl in Reynolda’s pastel. He contacted Reynolda House curators in April 1997, and they began the process of confirming the curators’ suspicions.
It is believed that mistake about the sitters’ identity happened in this way: In 1919, Cassatt’s Paris art dealer Joseph Durand-Ruel acquired this pastel (presumably from the Gaillards themselves) and wrote to the artist to request identification of the sitters. Cassatt identified them as Mme. Gaillard and her daughter. In 1920, Durand-Ruel sold the piece to a Madame Meerson under the title Mere et Jeune Fille (Mother and Young Girl). When it was sold in 1949 to a Morris Saffron, he mistakenly assumed that the previous owner of the painting, Madame Meerson, was the mother depicted. It was at this point that the erroneous title became affixed. The work was officially retitled in 1997.
In 1998, Madame Gaillard’s grandson, Philippe Remon, sent a photograph of his grandmother and his mother (Marie-Thérèse) to Reynolda House for our records. The similarity of the figures in the photograph to the sitters in the pastel is striking.
Provenance1919-1920
Durand-Ruel Galleries, Paris between May 23, 1919 and January 19, 1920. [1]
From 1920
Madame Meerson (friend of the artist), purchased from Durand-Ruel in 1920. [2]
To 1941
Maurice Delacre (1862-1938), Paris. [3]
1941
Sale, Delacre Sale, Paris, December 15, 1941. [4]
1949
Sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, on April 13, 1949, No. 80. [5]
1952
Sale, Kende Galleries, New York, on February 11, 1952. [6]
From 1952 to 1968
Dr. Morris H. Saffron (1905-1993), acquired painting in 1949. [7]
1968
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, acquired from Dr. Morris H. Saffron in 1968. [8]
From 1969 to 1976
Barbara B. Millhouse, New York purchased from Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc. on June 17, 1969. [9]
From 1975
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, partial and promised gift of Barbara B. Millhouse, full ownership transferred in 1981. [10]
Notes:
[1] Letter from H&A 5/20/1997, info from Cassatt catalogue raisonné office.
[2] Reynolda House coversheet summaries, 1981 & 1997, object file.
[3] See note 2.
[4] See note 2. Delacre Sale, Paris, 15 December 1941 (Cat. A.).
[5] See note 2.
[6] See note 2.
[7] Letter from A. D. Breeskin in 3/24/1970 states that Dr. Morris Saffron purchased the work at the 1952 Kende Sale. In a Memo dated May 24, 1977, from Dr. Saffron’s visit to Reynolda House, asserts that he owned the painting for 20 years, from 1949 to 1968. Copies in object file.
[8] Letter from M. P. Naud at Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., on May 20, 1997 stated that Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc. acquired the pastel from Dr. Saffron, copy in object file.
[9] Bill of Sale, object file.
[10] Deed of gifts, 1975 & 1976, object file.
Exhibition History1965
Women Artists of America 1707-1964
The Newark Museum, Newark NJ (1965)
1967
Summer Loan Exhibition
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY (1967)
Lent by Dr. Morris H. Saffron under the title ‘Mother and Child’
1968
The American Impressionists
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., New York NY (1968)
Cat. No. 9
1971
Reynolda House American Paintings
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., New York NY (1/13/1971-1/31/1971)
Cat No. 21
For the benefit of the Smith College Scholarship Fund
1990-1992
American Originals, Selections From Reynolda House Museum Of American Art
The American Federation of Arts
Center for the Fine Arts, Miami FL (9/22/1990-11/18/1990)
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs CA (12/16/1990-2/10/1991)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY (3/6/1991-5/11/1991)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis TN (6/2/1991-7/28/1991)
Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth TX (8/17/1991-10/20/1991)
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago IL (11/17/1991-1/12/1992)
The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK (3/1/1992-4/26/1992)
2005
Vanguard Collecting: American Art at Reynolda House
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (4/1/2005-8/21/2005)
2006
Self/Image: Portraiture from Copley to Close
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (8/30/2006-12/31/2006)
2007
Impressions: Americans in France, 1860 -1930
Naples Museum of Art, Naples FL (1/18/2007-5/13/2007)
2009-2010
Expatriates
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (12/5/2009-4/5/2010)
2012-2013
The Armory Show: One Hundred Years Later
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (12/15/2012-6/23/2013)
2015
Monet and American Impressionism
Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainsville (2/3/2015 - 5/24/15)
Hunter Museum of American Art, Chatanooga, TN (6/27/2015-9/20/2015)
Telfair Museums, Savannah, GA (10/16/2015-1/24/2016)
2020
Girlhood in American Art
Reynolda Hosue Museum of American Art (10/20/2020-3/21/2021)
Published ReferencesArts. vol. 42 (May 1968): illus. 49.
Art News. vol. 67:8 (Nov. 1968): illus. 51.
Lassiter, Barbara B. Reynolda House American Paintings. Winston-Salem, NC: Reynolda House, Inc., 1971: 44, illus. 45.
Millhouse, Barbara B. and Robert Workman. American Originals. New York: Abbeville Press Pub., 1990: 94-5.
Schiller, Joyce K. Woman's World, 1880-1920: From Object To Subject. Winston-Salem, NC: Reynolda House Museum of American Art, 2000: 7.
Breeskin, A.D. Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonné Of Oil, Pastels, Watercolors And Drawings. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1970.
Gerdts, William H. Impressions: Americans in France, 1860-1930. Naples FL: Naples Museum of Art, 2006.
Román, Dulce M. Monet and American Impressionism.Gainesville, FL: Harm Museum of Art, University Press of Florida, 2015: 144.
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg. 140, 141
DepartmentAmerican Art
Madame Gaillard and Her Daughter Marie-Thérèse
Artist
Mary Cassatt
(1844 - 1926)
Date1897
Mediumpastel on paper
DimensionsFrame: 33 1/4 x 38 1/2 in. (84.5 x 97.8 cm)
Image: 22 3/4 × 28 1/8 in. (57.8 × 71.4 cm)
SignedMary Cassatt
Credit LineGift of Barbara B. Millhouse
CopyrightPublic domain
Object number1975.2.1
DescriptionMary Cassatt met the Gaillard family, depicted in this pastel, through her friend Edgar Degas. Dr. Theodore Gaillard was an early patron of the French Impressionists and a collector of works by Renoir, Sisley, and Degas. Finding a sympathetic patron in Dr. Gaillard, Cassatt developed a friendship with the family and became a frequent house guest. In 1894, three years prior to completing this double portrait, Cassatt had completed a pastel of a six-year-old Marie-Thérèse.In this intimate double portrait, Madame Gaillard and her daughter Marie-Thérèse sit close together. They are strikingly different physical types: Madame Gaillard is fair and auburn-haired, while her daughter has an olive complexion and long dark hair. They are elegantly dressed in dark gowns with fashionable puffed sleeves. Marie-Thérèse drapes her arm over her mother’s shoulder in an affectionate and casual gesture, gazing contemplatively at the viewer. Her mother, in contrast, gazes off into the distance with an unreadable expression—perhaps quiet sadness, perhaps simple introspection.
With her portraits, Cassatt aspired to do more than simply capture a likeness. Her experiments with color, form, and space were quite radical. In Madame Gaillard and Her Daughter Marie-Thérèse, Cassatt uses yellows and blues to create the highlights on their shiny black gowns, and blues and purples to suggest the shadows on their faces. The blocky forms in the background emphasize the flatness of the picture surface and reject a realistic recession into space, an effect which certainly owes something to Cassatt’s interest in Japanese prints. The result of these stylistic choices is a decorative surface pattern that enlivens the quiet scene.
Cassatt used an extraordinary variety of media in her work, from oils to pastels to gouache to watercolor to drypoint and aquatint, sometimes combining these media in innovative ways. A survey of her work in the 1890s reveals that, in addition to engaging in experiments in printmaking inspired by Japanese prints, Cassatt turned often to pastels in her portraits of mothers and children. Perhaps the immediacy of the medium appealed to her, as she could quickly capture the likenesses of her subjects while they sat for her. Her expert handling of the medium is revealed in the skill she demonstrates in her use of highlights and shadow.
When Barbara Babcock Millhouse, founding president of Reynolda House Museum of American Art, bought this pastel from Hirschl and Adler Galleries in New York in 1969, it was entitled Madame Meerson and Her Daughter. In 1997, Judith Barter and Kevin Sharp, curators at the Art Institute of Chicago, suggested that the sitters had been incorrectly identified and that the correct title for the painting should be Madame Gaillard and Her Daughter Marie-Thérèse.
The curators made the discovery as they were conducting research for the exhibition Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman at the Art Institute. Mr. Sharp knew of a portrait of Marie-Thérèse Gaillard that was coming up for sale at Christie’s and was struck by the resemblance of the sitter in that portrait to the young girl in Reynolda’s pastel. He contacted Reynolda House curators in April 1997, and they began the process of confirming the curators’ suspicions.
It is believed that mistake about the sitters’ identity happened in this way: In 1919, Cassatt’s Paris art dealer Joseph Durand-Ruel acquired this pastel (presumably from the Gaillards themselves) and wrote to the artist to request identification of the sitters. Cassatt identified them as Mme. Gaillard and her daughter. In 1920, Durand-Ruel sold the piece to a Madame Meerson under the title Mere et Jeune Fille (Mother and Young Girl). When it was sold in 1949 to a Morris Saffron, he mistakenly assumed that the previous owner of the painting, Madame Meerson, was the mother depicted. It was at this point that the erroneous title became affixed. The work was officially retitled in 1997.
In 1998, Madame Gaillard’s grandson, Philippe Remon, sent a photograph of his grandmother and his mother (Marie-Thérèse) to Reynolda House for our records. The similarity of the figures in the photograph to the sitters in the pastel is striking.
Provenance1919-1920
Durand-Ruel Galleries, Paris between May 23, 1919 and January 19, 1920. [1]
From 1920
Madame Meerson (friend of the artist), purchased from Durand-Ruel in 1920. [2]
To 1941
Maurice Delacre (1862-1938), Paris. [3]
1941
Sale, Delacre Sale, Paris, December 15, 1941. [4]
1949
Sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, on April 13, 1949, No. 80. [5]
1952
Sale, Kende Galleries, New York, on February 11, 1952. [6]
From 1952 to 1968
Dr. Morris H. Saffron (1905-1993), acquired painting in 1949. [7]
1968
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, acquired from Dr. Morris H. Saffron in 1968. [8]
From 1969 to 1976
Barbara B. Millhouse, New York purchased from Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc. on June 17, 1969. [9]
From 1975
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, partial and promised gift of Barbara B. Millhouse, full ownership transferred in 1981. [10]
Notes:
[1] Letter from H&A 5/20/1997, info from Cassatt catalogue raisonné office.
[2] Reynolda House coversheet summaries, 1981 & 1997, object file.
[3] See note 2.
[4] See note 2. Delacre Sale, Paris, 15 December 1941 (Cat. A.).
[5] See note 2.
[6] See note 2.
[7] Letter from A. D. Breeskin in 3/24/1970 states that Dr. Morris Saffron purchased the work at the 1952 Kende Sale. In a Memo dated May 24, 1977, from Dr. Saffron’s visit to Reynolda House, asserts that he owned the painting for 20 years, from 1949 to 1968. Copies in object file.
[8] Letter from M. P. Naud at Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., on May 20, 1997 stated that Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc. acquired the pastel from Dr. Saffron, copy in object file.
[9] Bill of Sale, object file.
[10] Deed of gifts, 1975 & 1976, object file.
Exhibition History1965
Women Artists of America 1707-1964
The Newark Museum, Newark NJ (1965)
1967
Summer Loan Exhibition
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY (1967)
Lent by Dr. Morris H. Saffron under the title ‘Mother and Child’
1968
The American Impressionists
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., New York NY (1968)
Cat. No. 9
1971
Reynolda House American Paintings
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., New York NY (1/13/1971-1/31/1971)
Cat No. 21
For the benefit of the Smith College Scholarship Fund
1990-1992
American Originals, Selections From Reynolda House Museum Of American Art
The American Federation of Arts
Center for the Fine Arts, Miami FL (9/22/1990-11/18/1990)
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs CA (12/16/1990-2/10/1991)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY (3/6/1991-5/11/1991)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis TN (6/2/1991-7/28/1991)
Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth TX (8/17/1991-10/20/1991)
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago IL (11/17/1991-1/12/1992)
The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK (3/1/1992-4/26/1992)
2005
Vanguard Collecting: American Art at Reynolda House
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (4/1/2005-8/21/2005)
2006
Self/Image: Portraiture from Copley to Close
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (8/30/2006-12/31/2006)
2007
Impressions: Americans in France, 1860 -1930
Naples Museum of Art, Naples FL (1/18/2007-5/13/2007)
2009-2010
Expatriates
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (12/5/2009-4/5/2010)
2012-2013
The Armory Show: One Hundred Years Later
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (12/15/2012-6/23/2013)
2015
Monet and American Impressionism
Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainsville (2/3/2015 - 5/24/15)
Hunter Museum of American Art, Chatanooga, TN (6/27/2015-9/20/2015)
Telfair Museums, Savannah, GA (10/16/2015-1/24/2016)
2020
Girlhood in American Art
Reynolda Hosue Museum of American Art (10/20/2020-3/21/2021)
Published ReferencesArts. vol. 42 (May 1968): illus. 49.
Art News. vol. 67:8 (Nov. 1968): illus. 51.
Lassiter, Barbara B. Reynolda House American Paintings. Winston-Salem, NC: Reynolda House, Inc., 1971: 44, illus. 45.
Millhouse, Barbara B. and Robert Workman. American Originals. New York: Abbeville Press Pub., 1990: 94-5.
Schiller, Joyce K. Woman's World, 1880-1920: From Object To Subject. Winston-Salem, NC: Reynolda House Museum of American Art, 2000: 7.
Breeskin, A.D. Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonné Of Oil, Pastels, Watercolors And Drawings. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1970.
Gerdts, William H. Impressions: Americans in France, 1860-1930. Naples FL: Naples Museum of Art, 2006.
Román, Dulce M. Monet and American Impressionism.Gainesville, FL: Harm Museum of Art, University Press of Florida, 2015: 144.
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg. 140, 141
Status
Not on viewCollections
circa 1765