Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas at the National Gallery

The National Gallery's exhibition Degas/Cassatt opens in a couple of week.  The exhibition brings together seventy works from the perioid in the 1880's when Degas and Cassatt's artistic dialogue was at its height.  Stephanie Strasnick reviewed the exhibition for ArtNews and writes

The canvas is a quintessential Cassatt. However, recent cleaning of the work and infrared images taken by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., reveal that brushstrokes from someone else’s hand are also present—Cassatt’s friend and colleague Edgar Degas. The French artist subtly changed the shape of the room. He had the floor intersect with the back wall at an angle, rather than perpendicularly, creating negative spaces that are strange and unexpected.

Upon discovering these details of Degas’s intervention on Cassatt’s canvas, a team of experts at the National Gallery decided to explore further. They organized the exhibition Degas/Cassatt to investigate the previously unknown depth of the pair’s artistic relationship. more

Mary Cassatt, Little Girl in a Blue Armchair, 1878, oil on canvas COURTESY NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON, COLLECTION OF MR. AND MRS. PAUL MELLON.

Edgar Degas, Rehearsal in the Studio, ca. 1878-1879, Egg tempera on canvas ©SHELBURNE MUSEUM, SHELBURNE, VERMONT. COURTESY COLLECTION OF SHELBURNE MUSEUM. GIFT OF ELECTRA WEBB BOSTWICK.