Simone Seated on the Grass next to her Mother

Two heads turn in different directions within a closely cropped outdoor setting. The adult at the left appears in profile, while the child’s body faces outward and her face angles towards the left. A large pale hat and black ribbon give Simone a distinctive silhouette beside the adult’s dark hair. The pair sit close, yet their faces remain visibly separate.

Sotheby’s dates Simone Seated on the Grass Next to Her Mother to 1901–02 and records pastel on paper laid down on board, measuring 71.8 × 60.3 centimetres. The exact work appeared in its 30 September 2020 American Art sale as lot 33. ^[1]

Cassatt gives the two figures different kinds of visual weight. The adult’s ochre and violet bodice makes a broad area on the left; the child’s white clothing opens towards the lower right. Green, blue and yellow marks gather around the heads, while a warmer, more exposed field remains below. This changing coverage is as important to the composition as the poses themselves.

Two heads at different heights

The adult’s head rises higher and farther to the left. Dark hair forms a large rounded mass above a narrow neck, with the profile projecting towards the right. The forehead, nose, mouth and chin make a clearly directed edge against the surrounding lighter colours.

Simone’s head sits lower, beneath the sweeping brim. Her face turns towards the adult’s side of the picture, but it is not a profile matching the woman’s. We see both eyes and the broader front of the cheeks. The two heads consequently establish different angles within the same compact group.

Their difference in height leaves room for the hat to rise between and beside them. Its upper curve approaches the adult’s face without making the faces touch. A band of background remains part of the separation, so closeness is established through overlapping shapes rather than a kiss or embrace.

The eyes do not provide clear evidence of a meeting gaze. Each head has its own direction, and the arrangement can be followed without inventing a conversation. The portrait’s relation between adult and child is visible in their placement even where a precise exchange remains unknown.

A pale hat with a dark boundary

The hat extends much farther than the child’s skull. Its brim sweeps across the top and descends beside the hair, making a broad enclosure around a relatively small face. A dark edge keeps this pale shape distinct from the green-blue field behind it.

At the upper right, a black ribbon forms an irregular projecting accent. Its compact darkness interrupts the lighter brim and draws attention to that side of the headwear. The effect depends on a change in density as well as a change in colour: pale marks spread, while the ribbon gathers.

The hat is not evenly described from one side to the other. Some passages establish its broad surface through yellow and light strokes; others concentrate on the contour. The viewer receives enough information to recognise a substantial brim without a complete account of its construction.

This headwear also gives the child a visual weight comparable to the adult’s larger head and dark hair. Without the broad brim, the two sides would be much more unequal. Cassatt uses costume to adjust the relation between the figures, allowing Simone’s side to occupy a substantial part of the upper composition.

The adult’s bodice and neckline

The adult’s garment combines ochre areas with cooler violet and blue marks. The colours remain visibly separate in places, so the bodice reads both as a large volume and as a surface made through individual applications of pastel.

A dark line follows the neckline, descending towards the centre before turning upward. It provides a firm boundary beneath the pale neck and chest. The contour is stronger than much of the clothing’s lower continuation, keeping attention near the head and upper torso.

The shoulder and sleeve form a broad left-hand shape. Their extent helps anchor the pair within the upright sheet. By contrast, the adult’s lower body is indicated less completely, with dark lines and scattered strokes continuing into the open field.

This uneven description makes the upper figure seem more substantial without giving every part the same finish. The neckline can be strongly bounded while the lower garment remains partly implied. Both effects contribute to the same body, allowing density to change across it.

Folded hands and a mostly frontal body

Simone’s arms bend inward towards the lap. The hands overlap near the lower centre of her body, gathering small lines and warmer colour into a compact group. This gives the pose an inward connection beneath the outward-facing torso.

The puffed sleeves broaden the upper arms. Pale strokes establish their rounded forms, with warmer and cooler touches helping the fabric turn. These lighter shapes make a marked contrast with the adult’s darker, less symmetrical clothing at the left.

The child’s body and face have different orientations. The torso is mostly frontal, while the head angles aside. That difference prevents the pose from becoming a rigid arrangement of one axis running from hat to lap.

The hands provide another direction. Their inward meeting makes a smaller shape below the broad shoulders and hat. Looking through these levels, the composition alternates between expansion and gathering: a wide brim, a narrow face, broad sleeves and a compact group of fingers.

An outdoor field without a distant view

Green, blue, yellow and pale marks establish a setting around the heads. The colours suggest outdoor surroundings, but the background does not open into a long view of paths, buildings or distant landscape. Most of the space is occupied by the two figures and the marks immediately around them.

The title names grass, yet the visible setting is not a detailed botanical inventory. It is more useful to follow the way green and blue strokes surround the hair and hat than to assign a species to every accent. The background gives the group a coloured environment without becoming a separate scene to explore.

Some marks run diagonally, others more vertically. Their changing directions prevent the field from becoming a uniform green surface. Light passages beside the adult’s profile and the child’s hat also help keep the boundaries readable.

The closeness of the view matters. A broad account of a garden might make the figures seem small within a place. Here, the faces, garments and headwear dominate, and the surroundings mainly establish intervals and contrasts around them. The outdoor subject remains a portrait-like encounter with two people.

Paper, pastel and the board beneath

The catalogue’s medium identifies paper carrying the pastel and board supporting that paper. These are distinct parts of the object. It does not date the mounting or establish which person carried it out. ^[1]

The lower area makes the role of open support especially apparent. White strokes become more widely separated as the child’s dress descends, leaving a tan-looking field between them. The garment remains legible through its main directions even where coverage is sparse.

That visible tan should not be treated as a scientifically established original paper colour. A reproduction records an appearance, while the material history of a support can be more complicated. Likewise, the catalogue’s basic medium does not identify particular pigments or a fixative treatment.

The changing density is nevertheless available to the eye. Concentrated faces, strongly edged headwear and more scattered lower marks make different demands on attention. The open passages do not, by themselves, prove abandonment or preparation for an oil painting.

In the Garden

The Detroit Institute of Arts dates In the Garden to 1903 or 1904 and records oil on canvas. Its horizontal arrangement provides a useful comparison with this upright pastel. ^[15]

In the Detroit painting, the adult is seen more from behind, with a chair’s slats crossing the lower left. A pink-clad child looks outward beneath a broad hat. Furniture and a more continuous painted setting provide a different structure for the closely placed figures.

Here, the adult’s profile is more prominent and the child’s head angles towards the left. The lower figures dissolve into a more open field, without the chair providing an equivalent set of firm divisions. The different handling changes how the pair are anchored within the image.

The comparison shows how a similar broad subject can yield a different composition. It does not identify the same family or a shared sitting. Pose, format, clothing and the amount of setting described are already enough to make the distinction clear.

Summertime

Cassatt’s horizontal Summertime, catalogued as an oil of 1894–95, places its figures in a boat among ducks and rippling water. It offers a more spatially extended outdoor arrangement. ^[16]

The boat’s side gives the figures a strong enclosing curve, while water continues around them. Ducks occupy different positions across the surface, drawing attention away from the people and into the surrounding activity. The setting becomes a larger part of what there is to look at.

In the pastel, the broad hat and adult’s shoulder provide the main enclosing shapes. The green field stays close behind the heads, and no equivalent procession of birds draws the gaze across the lower area. The attention remains concentrated on the pair and their differing turns.

These are distinct outdoor subjects, rather than proof of one exact location or set of sitters. Their difference lies in the relation between people and surroundings: a boat within an active water surface, compared with a closely framed seated group.

Title and historical ownership

The title identifies Simone and describes the adult as her mother. This is the catalogued relationship; it does not supply a fuller genealogy or independently establish every detail of the models’ lives. ^[1]

Sotheby’s provenance lists Ambroise Vollard, Luigi Corbellini, Knoedler in 1950 and the Chapman collection, followed by a 2010 Coker sale and acquisition by the later consignors. The 2020 offering was from the Long collection. These are auction-reported stages, not newly inspected transfer documents. ^[1]

The entry cites Breeskin number 453 and Cassatt Committee revision number 373. Those references distinguish this pastel from similarly composed works; they do not make a separate oil into the same object. No current owner is established by the historical consignment. ^[1]