Nurse Reading to a Little Girl

Mary Cassatt

Pastel on wove paper, mounted on canvas

Metropolitan Museum of Art

In this intimate pastel, Mary Cassatt depicts a nurse seated alongside a young girl, both absorbed in the shared act of reading. The child, dressed in light tones, leans close to her caregiver, whose deeper-hued attire provides a visual contrast that draws the eye to the open book at the composition's center. Executed in pastel on wove paper mounted on canvas, the work exemplifies Cassatt's mastery of the medium and her characteristic Impressionist handling of light, color, and everyday domestic life. As one of the few American artists fully integrated into the French Impressionist circle, Cassatt brought sustained and unsentimental attention to the private world of women and children, rendering this quiet moment of education with warmth and pictorial sophistication.