Offering the Panal to the Bullfighter

1873

During an extended stay in Spain in 1873, Cassatt made several paintings of local customs. This work depicts a young woman flirtatiously offering a glass of water to a bullfighter, who dips panal (honeycomb) into it to make a refreshing drink. The rich colors and dazzling brushwork are inspired by the seventeenth-century Spanish painter Diego Velázquez, whose “fine and simple manner” Cassatt praised.

Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	39 5/8 x 33 1/2 in. (100.6 x 85.1 cm) Frame: 48 1/8 x 41 3/8 x 2 11/16 in. (122.2 x 105.1 x 6.8 cm)
Object Number	1955.1
Acquisition	Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status	On View

Image Caption

Mary Cassatt, Offering the Panal to the Bullfighter, 1873, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.1

Select Bibliography

Boone, M. Elizabeth. Vistas de España: American Views of Art and Life in Spain, 1860-1914. New Haven and London: Yale Unversity Press. 2007. Unknown author. Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure et lithographie des artistes vivants, exposés au palais des Champs-Élysées. Exhibition catalogue. Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1873. Exhibition of Paintings, Engravings, and Drawings. Cincinnati: Industrial Exposition, 1873. National Academy of Design. 49th Annual Exhibition. Exhibition catalogue. New York: National Academy of Design, 1874. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. 49th Annual Exhibition. Exhibition catalogue. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 1878. Breeskin, Adelyn D. and Vladimir Visson. A Loan Exhibition of Mary Cassatt for the Benefit of the Goddard Neighborhood Center. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Wildenstein & Co., 1947. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Four: First Two Rooms. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955. Wildenstein & Company. An Exhibition of Treasures from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts: Paintings, drawings & rare silver, for the benefit of the Committee to Rescue Italian Art, inc. (CRIA). Exhibition catalogue. New York: Wildenstein & Company, 1967. Stratton, Suzanne L. Spain, Espagne, Spanien: Foreign Artists Discover Spain 1800–1900. Exhibition catalogue. New York: The Spanish Institute in association with the Equitable Gallery, 1993. Hunter, Sam, and Melissa Medeiros. The Rise of the Art World in America: Knoedler at 150. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Knoedler & Co., 1996. Barter, Judith A., et al. Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Art Institute of Chicago in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1998. "The National Academy Exhibition." The Nation. Vol. 18. May 14, 1874. Daily Evening Telegraph Philadelphia. April 24, 1878. Ségard, Achille. Un peintre des enfants et des mères: Mary Cassatt. Paris: Librairie Paul Ollendorff. 1913. Forbes Watson.. Mary Cassatt.. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art.. 1932.. Breeskin, Adelyn D. The Graphic Work of Mary Cassatt. New York: H. Bittner & Co.. 1948. Sweet, Frederick A. Sargent, Whistler, and Mary Cassatt. Exhibition catalogue. Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago. 1954. (exh.cat.). "Nineteenth-Century Art in the Berkshires." Think. New York: IBM Corp. Oct. 1955. Venn, Diggory. "Enigma in Williamstown." New England Home (JanuaryFebruary 1956). Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Four & Exhibit Seven. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1958. Julia Carson.. Mary Cassatt.. New York: David McKay.. 1966.. Frederick A. Sweet.. Miss Mary Cassatt: Impressionist Painter from Pennsylvania.. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.. 1966.. Elisabeth P. Myers.. Mary Cassatt: A Portrait.. Chicago: Reilly & Lee Books.. 1971.. Wilson, Ellen. An American Painter in Paris: The Story of Mary Cassatt. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 1971. E. John Bullard.. Mary Cassatt: Oils and Pastels.. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications.. 1972.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972. Nancy Hale.. Mary Cassatt.. Garden City (NY): Doubleday & Co.. 1975.. Memphis (TN): Dixon Gallery and Gardens.. Mary Cassatt and the American Impressionists (exh.cat.).. 1976.. Jay Roudebush.. Mary Cassatt.. Paris: Flammarion.. 1979.. Joan King.. Impressionist: A Novel of Mary Cassatt.. New York: Reader's Digest.. 1983.. Griselda Pollock.. Mary Cassatt.. New York: Harper & Row.. 1980.. New York: Coe Kerr Gallery.. Mary Cassatt: An American Observer. A Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of the American Wing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (exh. cat.).. 1984.. Gerdts, William H. American Impressionism. New York: Abbeville Press. 1984. Nancy Mowll Mathews.. Mary Cassatt and the `Modern Madonna' of the 19th Century. Ph.D. diss., New York Univ.. 1980.. Matthews, Nancy Mowll, ed. Cassatt and Her Circle: Selected Letters. New York: Abbeville Press, 1984. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Suzanne G. Lindsay.. Mary Cassatt and Philadelphia (exh.cat.). Philadelphia Museum of Art.. 1985.. Luhrs, Kathleen, ed. American Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 1985. Mathews, Nancy Mowll. Mary Cassatt. Library of American Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987. Opera News. August 1988. Marshall Cavendish.. Mary Cassatt. (Great Artists of the Western World: American Artists).. London: Marshall Cavendish.. 1990.. Fink, Lois Marie. American Art at the 19th-century Paris Salons. Washington, DC: National Museum of American Art; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Conrads, Margaret C. American Paintings and Sculpture at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1990. Effeny, Alison. Cassatt: The Masterworks. New York: Portland House, 1991. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Muhlberger, Richard. What Makes a Cassatt a Cassatt? New York: Metropolitan Museum & Viking. 1994. Costantino, Maria. Mary Cassatt. Greenwich (CT): Brompton Books; New York: Barnes & Noble. 1995. Boone, M. Elizabeth. "Bullfights and Balconies: Flirtation, Majismo and Voyeurism in Mary Cassatt's Spanish Paintings of 187273." American Art 9, no. 1 (Spring 1995): 5571. Philip Brooks.. Mary Cassatt: An American in Paris.. New York: Franklin Watts.. 1995.. Kern, Steven, et al. The Clark: Selections from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1996. Nancy Mowll Mathews.. Mary Cassatt: A Life.. New York: Villard Books.. 1994.. Nancy Mowll Mathews.. Mary Cassatt: A Life (paperback edition).. New Haven: Yale University Press,. [1998].. Pollock, Griselda. Mary Cassatt: Painter of Modern Women. World of Art. London: Thames and Hudson, 1998. Boone, M. Elizabeth. "Brilliant Sunlight and Wonderful Color: Influence of Spain the the Work of Mathias Alten." In Mathias Alten, 73-90. Exh.cat. Grand Rapids (Michigan) Art Museum and Marquand Books, 1998. Breeskin, Adelyn D. Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oils, Pastels, Watercolors, and Drawings. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1970. Ferrara, Cos. Mary Cassatt: The Life and Art of a Genteel Rebel. Girls Explore LLC. 2004:p. 35. Fattal, Laura Felleman and Carol Salus, ed. Out of Context: American Artist Abroad. Westport, CT: Praeger. 2004:fig. 4. Hoena, Blake A. Mary Cassatt. Minnesota: Bridgestone Books an Imprint of Captone Press. 2004:p. 10. Tinterow, Gary and Geneviève Lacambre. Manet/Valázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting. Exhibition catalogue. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press, 2003. Allen, Brian T. "Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute." American Art Review: Special edition, The Western Massachusetts Art Trail XVI, no. 3 (2004): 162-169. Kramer, Hilton. "Art: Clark Institute Marks Silver Jubliee." New York Times, June11, 1980. Ganz, James A. and Richard R. Brettell. Great French Paintings from the Clark: Barbizon through Impressionism. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Skira Rizzoli Publications; Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2011. Melikian, Souren. "A Unique and Unforgettable Collection." International Herald Tribune, 16–17 September 2000. Ruud, Brandon and Corey Piper. Americans in Spain: Painting and Travel, 1820-1920. Exhibition catalogue. Milwaukee: Milwaukee Art Museum, Norfolk: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2020.

Provenance

M. Engrand, Paris (after December 1878); M. Parisot, Paris (by May 1947); [Durand-Ruel and Co., Paris, May 1947]; [Carroll Carstairs, New York, 20 June 1947]; [M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 29 September 1947, sold to Clark, 2 Oct 1947]; Robert Sterling Clark (1938-1955); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.