{"data":{"id":13508,"api_model":"artworks","api_link":"https:\/\/api.artic.edu\/api\/v1\/artworks\/13508","is_boosted":false,"title":"The Letter","alt_titles":null,"thumbnail":{"lqip":"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAwAFAPMAAFhgbJaLgpaThZyWjp2amaOWh6eYiaunorGurMq\/s8nDtszDtcvEt9LIvtnPwgAAACH5BAAAAAAAIf8LSW1hZ2VNYWdpY2sOZ2FtbWE9MC40NTQ1NDUALAAAAAADAAUAAAQL0LGlRDnDEBAaShEAOw==","width":7194,"height":10435,"alt_text":"Print of a woman in a blue, patterned dress, seated at a desk and licking an envelope closed."},"main_reference_number":"1932.1282","has_not_been_viewed_much":false,"boost_rank":null,"date_start":1890,"date_end":1891,"date_display":"1890\u201391","date_qualifier_title":"","date_qualifier_id":null,"artist_display":"Mary Cassatt (American, 1844-1926)\nprinted with Leroy (French, active 1876-1900)","place_of_origin":"United States","description":"<p>Mary Cassatt began a series of color prints in 1890 that exemplify her indebtedness to Japanese color woodblock prints and her thematic focus on figures in interiors.  In <em>The Letter<\/em>, Cassatt used the patterns of the woman's dress and wallpaper as well as vibrant printing inks to manipulate space and formal elements inspired by Japanese art.  The subject matter reflects the artist's focus on women indoors because contemporary social mores restricted their activities outside the home.<\/p>\n","short_description":null,"dimensions":"Image\/plate: 34.5 \u00d7 21.1 cm (13 5\/8 \u00d7 8 5\/16 in.); Sheet: 43.7 \u00d7 29.7 cm (17 1\/4 \u00d7 11 3\/4 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":21,"height":34,"diameter":null,"clarification":"Image\/plate"},{"depth":null,"width":29,"height":43,"diameter":null,"clarification":"Sheet"}],"medium_display":"Color aquatint and drypoint on off-white laid paper","inscriptions":"Inscribed recto, lower right, below image, in graphite: \"Imprim[\u00e9e] par l'artiste et Mr. Leroy \/ Mary Cassatt \/ (25 \u00e9preuves)\"","credit_line":"Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection","catalogue_display":"<p>Breeskin 146 III\/III<\/p><p>Mathews & Shapiro 8 IV\/IV<\/p>","publication_history":"The Art Institute of Chicago Bulletin XXVII (1933), p. 40 (ill.).\n\nAdelyn D. Breeskin, The Graphic Work of Mary Cassatt (New York, 1948), p. 73, no. 146.\n\nNancy Mowll Matthews and Barbara Stern Shapiro, Mary Cassatt: The Color Prints, exh. cat. (New York, 1989), p. 124, cat. 8-IV.\n\nDiane De Grazia and Carter E. Foster (editors), Master Drawings from the Cleveland Musesum of Art, exh. cat. (Cleveland, 2000), p. 214, fig. 1.\n\nMasterworks of American Painting at the De Young (San Francisco, 2005).\n\nPamela Norris, Words of Love: Passionate Women from Heloise to Sylvia Plath (London, 2006).","exhibition_history":"Baltimore Museum of Art, \"Mary Cassatt,\" January 7-February 10, 1936, p. 13, cat. 27.\n\nPortland, Maine, Portland Museum of Art, \"Miss Mary Cassatt: Impressionist from Philadelphia,\" May 17-July 1, 1979.\n\nWilliamstown, Mass., Williams College Museum of Art, \"Mary Cassatt: The Color Prints,\" November 25, 1989-January 21, 1990, p. 124, cat. 8-IV\n\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, January 27, 1993-January 16, 1994.\n\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, \"Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman,\" October 10, 1998-January 10, 1999, pp. 281 and 323, cat. 59 (ill.).\n\nSmart Museum of Art, \"Awash in Color: French and Japanese Prints\", October 4, 2012 - January 20, 2013, pp. 120-121, fig. 99, cat. 51, cat. by Chelsea Foxwell et. al.","provenance_text":"The artist to Durand-Ruel [Chicago 1998].  Albert Roullier, Chicago [Chicago 1998].  Given by Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson, Chicago, to the Art Institute, 1932.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":3,"fiscal_year":1933,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":true,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":false,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":0,"color":{"h":213,"l":40,"s":21,"percentage":0.000667382537676142,"population":501},"latitude":null,"longitude":null,"latlon":null,"is_on_view":true,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":"Gallery 184","gallery_id":23999,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Print","artwork_type_id":18,"department_title":"Prints and Drawings","department_id":"PC-13","artist_id":33890,"artist_title":"Mary Cassatt","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[33890],"artist_titles":["Mary Cassatt"],"category_ids":["PC-13","PC-825"],"category_titles":["Prints and Drawings","Women artists"],"term_titles":["drypoint","paper (fiber product)","interior","print","prints and drawing"],"style_id":null,"style_title":null,"alt_style_ids":[],"style_ids":[],"style_titles":[],"classification_id":"TM-154","classification_title":"drypoint","alt_classification_ids":["TM-17","TM-4"],"classification_ids":["TM-154","TM-17","TM-4"],"classification_titles":["drypoint","print","prints and drawing"],"subject_id":null,"alt_subject_ids":["TM-14037"],"subject_ids":["TM-14037"],"subject_titles":["interior"],"material_id":"TM-2982","alt_material_ids":[],"material_ids":["TM-2982"],"material_titles":["paper (fiber product)"],"technique_id":null,"alt_technique_ids":[],"technique_ids":[],"technique_titles":[],"theme_titles":["Women artists"],"image_id":"1fb50815-11e5-2191-a4ed-8e0e5801cc15","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":[],"sound_ids":[],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1932.1282"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["The Letter"],"weight":4397,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2026-09-03T09:08:14-05:00","updated_at":"2026-09-03T12:11:39-05:00","timestamp":"2026-09-08T02:26:32-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. All other data in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) 1.0 designation and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu.","license_links":["https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/","https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/terms"],"version":"1.15"},"config":{"iiif_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2","website_url":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu"}}