In the Omnibus by Mary Cassatt, ca. 1891

<p>Expatriate artist Mary Cassatt focused on modern women, exploring the private intimacy of motherhood as well as women’s expanding public role in society. Cassatt was closely affiliated with the Impressionists, exhibiting paintings with them in 1879, 1880, 1881, and 1886. Printmaking served as an extension to her painting, offering commercial opportunities and a chance to experiment with line and color.</p>

<p>In 1890 Cassatt and her friend, artist Edgar Degas, attended an exhibition of Japanese ukiyo-e prints at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In the Omnibus is one of a series of ten prints she made inspired by the Japanese woodblock prints. It is the only print in the series depicting women outside the home, and the only time she shows women riding public transportation. A woman with an umbrella sits next to her servant, who attends to a child on her lap. The composition is a nod to Honoré Daumier’s prints of first and third carriages carrying the denizens of Paris, but the women appear alone in the omnibus. Instead Cassatt extends the view of the landscape through the windows, encompassing the river and bridge behind them. Fine, precise lines articulate the details of their hair and clothing, and the soft palette of green, blue, and pink merge in the pattern of the servant’s hat. The moment is relaxed and informal, the women sitting easily together in anticipation of what the day will bring. – Kiki Gilderhus</p>

<p>Selected Bibliography</p>

<p>Barter, Judith A. Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman. New York: Art Institute of Chicago in association with H.N. Abrams, 1998.</p>

<p>Breeskin, Adelyn Dohme. Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Graphic Work. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979. (2d ed., rev.). </p>

<p>Mary Cassatt: A Catalog Raisonné of the Graphic Work, 2nd Edition. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979.</p>