Pastel Cassatt worked always, but most of the pastel work, she created at the end of her life, after the 1900s. During these years, the artist’s eyesight began to deteriorate, it became difficult for her to stand for an extended time at the easel, and the pastel gradually ousted oil paints and brushes from her workshop.
The pastel style of Mary Cassatt at times resembles the style of her drawings. As in the picture, she prefers a clear, energetic touch in pastels, often uses cross-hatching and focuses only on the individual, most significant, details. These features of manners are well illustrated by the work “Long gloves”. Sometimes Cassatt moves away from this style and creates pastels such as “A Woman in a Blue Blouse with a Red Tie”, 1895. Here all the lines are relaxed, the shading is not so obvious, and the main emphasis is on the color solution.
The lack of small details allows the artist to focus the viewer’s attention on the face of the model, although it seems pale in comparison with her bright clothes. In the 1900s, Cassatt especially often had to paint pastel children’s portraits – for some reason it was children’s pastel portraits that most customers liked most. And, although Cassatt did not already have the old sharpness of her eyes and the firmness of her hand, in these pastels, however, she still feels a great talent.
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