Little Girl in a Blue Armchair

Mary Cassatt painted Little Girl in a Blue Armchair in 1878, in her Paris studio, with significant help from her mentor Edgar Degas. The model was the small daughter of Cassatt’s friends – already restless from a session of formal posing – and Cassatt made the unusual decision to paint her exactly as she fell: sprawled sideways on a low overstuffed armchair, ankles crossed, hands behind her head, frowning slightly at the painter.

Three matching turquoise armchairs and a low settee are arranged around the room in a steep, tilted perspective borrowed from Japanese woodblock prints, with the tan-coloured floor pushing toward the viewer. A Brussels griffon dog (Cassatt’s own, named Batty) sleeps on the chair to the left. The painting was rejected by the 1878 Paris Salon as too modern; it now hangs at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was the only American painter to exhibit with the Impressionists in Paris and is one of the central figures of the movement alongside Berthe Morisot.

This Cassatt inspired wall art works beautifully in Perth and Fremantle interiors painted in chalk, oat, plaster, sage or warm white. The cobalt-and-cream palette settles a child’s bedroom, sitting room, sunroom, hallway or above a low credenza, and pairs cleanly with linen sofas, oak floors, rattan and aged brass. It lifts when set against a single rust or mustard cushion or a brass lamp.

Available as stretched canvas, white floating frame, slim black framed print or archival lustre paper. Each impressionist art reproduction is hand-finished in our Perth workshop and shipped Australia-wide on rigid backing, ready to hang.