The Cup of Tea

By 1880 Mary Cassatt had lived in Paris for years and had thrown in her lot with the Impressionists, the group then scandalising the city with loose brushwork and everyday subjects. Afternoon tea was one of those subjects. The woman in the striped pink dress and bonnet is Cassatt's older sister Lydia, who had followed her to Paris and sat for her often. She holds the cup in gloved hands, half hidden behind the big silver tea service that catches the light in the foreground. Cassatt showed the picture at the Impressionist exhibition of 1881, where a critic singled out exactly that gesture, the gloved hands wrapped around the cup.