The Cup of Tea
Mary Cassatt’s sister Lydia was a big part of her life. Neither of them deciding to marry, they lived together in France until Lydia’s death in 1882. While she was alive, Mary used Lydia as a model in many of her paintings, The Cup of Tea being one of them. This painting is more of a genre painting than a portrait, as it represents a social custom that Cassatt revisited many times in her paintings: the taking of a cup of tea. Painted in an impressionistic manner, many art critics viewed the painting as unfinished, due to the fact that Cassatt left small peripheral portions of the canvas unpainted.
Jules Breton
1900
Anders Zorn
1888