MARY CASSATT, ‘Mother’s Kiss’, 1890-1891. Drypoint and aquatint on laid paper.
Colour print, 9×13.75 inches (without frame). Two figures, a mother and child, dominate the vertical space. A woman in a casual, homely dress with a white collar and cuffs, the dress decorated with simple flower motifs, is seated on what appears to be a high-backed wooden chair, painted also with flower motifs. She has her hair fixed up in a bun style. The child is nude with a good crop of hair. The woman cradles and embraces and leans down to kiss the child. The supported child holds the collar of the mother’s dress, the other arm is unseen. The background is plain and devoid of any further information.
The image is linear in style, evocative of and highly influenced by Japanese prints with flat plains of colour and motifs. We see, generally a lack of natural form or shadows, typical of Japanese art. As we can see, the motifs do not follow form and are flat. The strongest colour is from the deep green and red of the chair with the colours being picked up by the dark green and red flower motifs of the dress. The darkest colour is the black hair of mother and child. These dark colours contrast with the light pale green of the dress and the pale powdery blue of the background. A large part of the image is the plain light blue colour occupying the top third of the image and down the right-hand side. This large flat pale area makes the subject matter stand out and focuses the subject.
The intimacy, tenderness and close bond of love between mother and child are moving and heart-warming, a unique bond but it is not the otherworldliness of religious spiritual devotion that we find in Renascence art but a beautiful domestic scene of reality. The lines and flower motifs on the dress skip and dance give a lively dynamic to the image which contrasts with the stillness of the intimate moment and flat background.
