The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 37, no. 4

MARY CASSATT The Fitting, 1891
forms it. Asymmetrically balanced against
a wild rose, the face floats luminously, like
a lost petal in an eerie void.
The American expatriate Mary Cassatt
was introduced to the lessons of Japanese
prints by her friends Degas and Pisarro,
who like most French Impressionists were
greatly influenced by Japanese art. In-
began what was to be her most important
contribution to printmaking history-the
set of ten color prints for which she
adapted Japanese woodblock methods to a
combination of etching and engraving.
Not only was she successful in translating
the Japanese domestic scenes into the
context of the secure and prosperous
blockprint with her innovative use of
soft-ground etching, drypoint, and aquatint
in which color was hand-applied to the
plate. In The Fitting, the introduction of
the mirror reinforces the flat pattern of
wallpaper and carpet so reminiscent of
Japanese screens and prints, by rendering
the main figure a repeated shape, yet at the