THE SECRET BEHIND THE PAINTING

Here's a painting that smells of school vacations, of children far from school benches, carelessly sprawled out on the sofa... In her paintings, the American painter - one of the only women, along with Berthe Morisot, to belong to the Impressionist movement - gives pride of place to the women and children of her time, immortalizing them in everyday situations.

This painting, now proudly on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, was turned down by her compatriots when she offered it to the art gallery of the American pavilion at the 1878 World's Fair. Mary Cassatt was furious, having contributed to the enrichment of American collections by advising her friends to buy Impressionist paintings. But why did this painting, finally presented in 1879 for the fourth Impressionist painting exhibition in 1879, shock?

If we're used to painting children, they're always wisely represented. Looking at the viewer, they pose with all the seriousness that their social rank imposes. Here, the little girl is carelessly slumped on the sofa, eyes downcast, legs spread, one arm behind her neck, the other on the armrest, in a posture that is dislocated, to say the least. This nonchalant attitude is accentuated by the low-angle effect. The dog sleeping on the other armchair echoes the girl's laziness.

And look how the laziness of living beings is matched by the life of objects! The patterns on the armchairs and sofas reveal all the energy of Mary Cassatt's brushstrokes.

Brushstrokes by Mary Cassatt and by Degas, her painter friend! Indeed, infrared photography revealed that Degas had participated in painting the background, as Mary Cassatt had already asserted in her correspondence.