Mary Cassatt Analysis

Mary Cassatt was a renowned American painter who created a famous painting known as “The Letter”. At first glance, it portrayed an older women sitting at a desk simply mailing out a letter. After analyzing the painting for some time, I uncovered more then what was seen at first glance. The painting is very unique and was difficult to interpret in the beginning. When I visually analyzed the painting, I saw an older Japanese woman wearing traditional Japanese attire while sitting at what looks like a desk inside of a room. The expression of the Japanese woman showed a concerned/sad feeling which left me feeling unsettled. At the time, Japanese culture was very submissive for women. The men were believed to be the dominant authoritative figures of the house, and the women would do as the husbands demanded. Knowing this gave me an advantage in interpreting the picture even further. What exactly was the artist trying to express to the audience? This led me to break down the painting into individual structural components to help me understand what I was looking at. The lines the artist used are a cross between both straight and curving line segments that are used throughout the entire painting. A consistency of straight lines are used throughout the majority of the painting …show more content…
From the pressures of the lines to the melancholy colors, it suggested to me that the painting was in fact an emotional piece of work. As analyzed previously, the artist chose the perfect colors to make the audience feel and capture the correct tone of the message. An older women sitting at a desk in a gloomy room left the audience in suspense and allowed our minds to wonder. I felt as if the artist left the story up to his viewers to create any scenario they wish. However, I feel as though Mary Cassatt intended to paint a grieving a wife writing a farewell letter to her husband because she could no longer take the