The artwork titled “Portrait of Madame Cordier” was completed by Mary Cassatt in 1874. It is an oil painting, which embodies the Realism art movement. As a portrait, it captures the visage of Madame Cordier, and currently, the artwork is held in a private collection.
In this piece, Cassatt has rendered her subject with a sense of warmth and softness that is characteristic of her portraits. The gentle, lifelike depiction of Madame Cordier suggests a composed and respected figure. Her face is detailed with meticulous brushstrokes, exhibiting a delicate interplay of light and shadow that imbues the subject with a certain vivacity. The color palette is somewhat subdued, yet it serves to highlight Madame Cordier’s features, especially focusing on her expressive eyes and the faint tint on her cheeks.
The background is rendered in deeper, darker hues, which contends to drive the viewer’s focus toward the illuminated visage of Madame Cordier. She wears earrings and a lace collar, which provide modest ornamental detail to the composition without detracting from the overall somber and dignified tone set by her dark apparel. Through this artwork, Mary Cassatt has not merely created a representation of an individual but has also imparted a sense of the subject’s place within the social fabric of her time.
