Afternoon Tea Party

In "Afternoon Tea Party," a woman dressed in an elegant hat and gloves holds a teacup, seemingly engaged in conversation. Her companion, partially obscured, suggests a private, intimate gathering rather than a grand social event. The soft, muted colors, achieved through drypoint and aquatint, lend a delicate quality to the scene, emphasizing the quiet dignity of the moment. This print, made in 1890, captures a common ritual of late 19th-century upper-class life, yet it focuses on the internal world of the figures, a characteristic often found in Impressionist works. The artist, Mary Cassatt, spent much of her adult life in France and exhibited with the Impressionists, often depicting the domestic and social lives of women.