Enfant au chapeau de paille

Most of Cassatt's children are caught mid-play, but this little girl is plainly not enjoying herself. Made to stand still in a straw hat too big for her, she looks bored and faintly cross, her mouth set. Cassatt, an American from Pittsburgh who had settled in Paris and exhibited with the French Impressionists, painted her fast and loose, the white smock and sleeves broken into quick strokes that nearly dissolve into pattern up close. She worked wet and direct, straight onto the canvas in a single sitting, a method the French called alla prima. That speed is why a picture of a fidgety, reluctant child ended up looking dashed off in an afternoon.