2-732-914 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Knitting in the Library (verso), c. 1881. A mirror image of Cassatt's drawing of her mother knitting is found on the reverse of this double-sided sheet. To make the softground etching Knitting in the Library, Cassatt began with a copper plate prepared with a special soft etching ground and secured it to a sheet of paper upon which she drew in graphite. Wherever the pencil pressed into the ground, it adhered to the paper, thus creating the design seen here. The softground lines have a somewhat grainy texture and stains in the center fold-created by wrapping the sheet around the plate and on the blank paper at the right show green discolouration from the copper plate.