Clarissa, Turned Left, with her Hand to her Ear

Clarissa rests a hand beside her ear, with the forearm extending out towards the edge of the chair. Her face is more closely modelled than the blue sleeve and the loosely marked space around her. Mary Cassatt makes the differences within the pastel surface as conspicuous as the pose itself.

Sotheby’s 2012 catalogue identifies this composition as Clarissa, Turned Left, with Her Hand to Her Ear, about 1890–93, pastel on paper, measuring 64.8 × 50.8 cm. In 2021, the Greenville County Museum of Art announced the acquisition of a pastel under the same directional title, dated about 1893. The approximate dates overlap; they need not be converted into an unsupported exact year. ^{[1] [2]}

A hand beside the face

The hand is placed against the side of the head, near the ear and temple. Its fingers interrupt the contour where face and hair would otherwise meet the background. The gesture also makes the raised forearm part of the immediate setting for the head.

The elbow projects towards the left as we see the picture. From there, the arm leads diagonally upwards to the hand. This long pale shape differs from the smaller adjustments of colour that describe the face, yet both are necessary to make the pose readable.

The wrist turns as the hand reaches the head. That change prevents the whole arm from reading as one straight bar. A few contour marks and shifts of tone articulate the joint without requiring every part to receive the same finish.

The eyes look down and slightly aside. They do not meet the viewer, and no object is shown at the end of the gaze. The face and resting hand form a compact group within a much more loosely described body and chair.

Sotheby’s interprets the figure as contemplative. The pose can invite that response, but it cannot disclose a particular thought. It also supplies no evidence of deafness, fatigue or a personal crisis. What is visible is a hand touching the head, with the arm supported within a seated arrangement. ^[1]

The face receives the closest description

Pink and cooler light passages give the cheek and forehead their rounded appearance. The nose projects slightly towards the left, while the mouth is closed. Small changes around the eyelids carry more descriptive weight than a large patch of colour would in the sleeve.

Dark reddish-brown hair makes a substantial shape above the forehead. Shorter warm marks interrupt that mass, allowing the colour to remain varied rather than becoming a flat cap. Its dark upper edge separates the head from the lighter diagonal strokes behind it.

The ear and neck link the face to the rest of the figure. Cooler contours near the jaw and nape help make the transition legible. The neck then opens into a garment whose colour is less continuously worked.

This contrast does not make the face independent of its surroundings. The raised hand overlaps one side, the darker chair lies behind the arm, and the pale background marks enclose the hair. The head is the most concentrated part of a larger network of shapes.

A sleeve built from blue strokes

The right side of the image contains a conspicuous field of blue marks across the sleeve. Many remain separate, with warm-looking ground visible between them. Their repeated slant and changes of length make the act of marking easy to follow.

Lighter strokes cross and interrupt the blue. Together they give the sleeve a presence without describing every fold. Near its lower edge, darker outlines indicate the arm’s continuation into a part of the sheet that remains more open.

The central garment contains longer pale and pink passages. Warmer orange-red accents occur near the raised arm and lower waist. These do not repeat the sleeve’s blue arrangement; they establish other directions within the body.

The difference is useful to the eye. The blue sleeve carries one broad side of the figure, while the pale torso joins the shoulders and lap. A solidly coloured garment is not required for the seated body to be understood.

Chair, body and close cropping

The dark chair back extends behind the raised arm. Its upper boundary slopes through the area beside the head, giving the pale forearm a darker neighbouring shape. The chair therefore contributes to the visibility of the gesture rather than merely furnishing a room.

A broad curved form presses into the lower left foreground. Its dark edge and warm passages differ from the more open centre of the garment. Together with the lowered arm, it fills space that might otherwise let the viewer look farther into the room.

The opposite arm leads down towards the lap and lower edge. It supplies a longer descending direction against the bent arm near the head. The body is held between those unequal movements: one arm returns upwards, the other carries attention down.

Cropping adds weight to the lower grouping. We do not receive a full account of the chair, floor and legs. Instead, the near forms occupy much of the sheet and bring the viewer close to a seated figure. The incomplete surroundings are part of that proximity.

The background remains a field of marks

Behind the head, pale and pink diagonal strokes pass over a warm-looking surface. Their direction differs from the darker hair and the broad chair. They create a setting through colour and movement without identifying wallpaper, a window or a named interior.

The upper left remains more open than the area immediately around the hair. Elsewhere, a stronger concentration of light marks separates the silhouette from the ground. The amount of colour changes across the sheet, making uncovered intervals a visible part of the arrangement.

A reproduction shows the current relationship between these areas, but it does not establish the paper’s original hue. Nor can the visible ground identify a particular fixative or a mounting history. The contrast can be examined without turning appearance into a conservation diagnosis.

The pastel’s variety is clearest when the whole sheet is considered. A close view of the face reveals modelling; a wider view shows how much of the surrounding figure depends on separate strokes and contour. Neither view alone explains the entire work.

What pastel handling can tell us

Marjorie Shelley’s technical essay in American Pastels in the Metropolitan Museum of Art explains the relationship among blended modelling, graphic strokes and visible support in nineteenth-century pastel. Her general account offers terms for these differences; it is not a technical examination of Clarissa’s sheet. ^[16]

Modelling describes how changes of tone and colour suggest rounded form. Hatching uses repeated strokes whose directions remain apparent. An exposed support can participate in a composition rather than serving only as a surface to be concealed. In this portrait, these different effects can be considered alongside one another.

They do not establish a simple division between a finished face and an abandoned body. The body’s comparatively open treatment still supplies position, scale and a relationship with the chair. Calling those areas unfinished describes a difference in coverage more readily than it proves why Cassatt stopped working.

Our guide to Cassatt’s drawings and pastels examines this overlap of drawing and coloured form across her work. Clarissa is a particularly clear example of how a portrait can retain a strong head while making its surrounding marks conspicuous.

Titles and the identity of Clarissa

The title supplies a first name, a direction and a gesture. It does not supply a complete biography. An occupation, family relationship or history of the sitting cannot be recovered from the hand beside the ear.

The 2012 auction entry records earlier appearances under titles including Young Woman and Jeune fille assise. These historical title variants are reported by Sotheby’s; they should not be treated as newly recovered statements by Cassatt. Their wording also does not, by itself, indicate a change to the physical picture. ^[1]

A directional title is especially useful because other seated portraits can share a first name or gesture. Before comparing catalogue information, it is necessary to match the actual arrangement of head, arm, chair and body. A similar title is less precise than an image of the composition.

Here the raised hand on the left of the reproduction, the blue sleeve on the right and the close lower grouping provide clear visual anchors. They help keep this pastel distinct without requiring a speculative account of the model’s private life.

From the auction record to the museum announcement

Sotheby’s traces ownership from Payson Thompson, who acquired the work from Cassatt, through dealers and collectors to the owner who acquired it in 2003. The 2012 sale offered it from the Estate of Elizabeth Green Romano. Those are historical claims in that catalogue, rather than a present collection credit. ^[1]

The GCMA’s 2021 announcement lists Clarissa among acquisitions funded with proceeds from the sale of an Alma Thomas painting. It identifies the medium and approximate date but does not provide a Cassatt purchase price, seller or accession number. ^[2]

The two records answer different questions. The auction entry binds an exact image to detailed historical catalogue information. The later notice records an acquisition announcement. Neither should be made to provide details absent from it, and an earlier private owner should not remain the default location after a museum has announced a purchase.

Denise at Her Dressing Table

Denise at Her Dressing Table, an oil of about 1908–09 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, provides a useful comparison. Denise raises one hand towards her hair and holds a hand mirror, while a larger mirror supplies another view of the head. ^[17]

The raised arm in that painting belongs to an identifiable grooming action. The mirrors establish what the figure can inspect, and the handheld object gives the other hand a precise function. In Clarissa’s portrait, no such object or reflected scene explains the resting gesture.

The surroundings also differ. Denise is enclosed by furniture and a large circular mirror; Clarissa is brought forward through chair, body and open background marks. A similar elevation of an arm consequently participates in a different spatial arrangement.

The media remain distinct. Denise’s visible brushwork is oil paint on canvas, while Clarissa’s blue strokes and modelled face belong to pastel on paper. Their comparison concerns how Cassatt places a figure and makes a gesture legible, rather than proving an identical process or the identity of the same model.