A young woman clad in a white dress is sitting in a side box of a theater or opera, gazing across the balcony. Mary Cassatt's presents the young woman in typical costume of the 19th century: A high-necked, corseted dress with red highlights on the lace of both collar and sleeves, complemented by white gloves. The woman wears her hair up in the fashion of the time, suggesting that she is either married or ready to get married. Apart from the gloves, two flowers in her hair - one red and one white - as well as a big fan serve as her accessories.
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| Mary Cassatt, In the Loge, c. 1879, pastel and metallic paint on canvas prepared with a pastel ground, 65,1 x 81,3 cm, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. |
In combination with the depiction in profil perdu (lost profile), the fan, covering part of her chin, adds to the general uncertainty of whether the woman is looking at the stage or around the theater. The loge is on the second floor and she appears to be enwrapped in the goings-on of the theater. Her eyes are turned down towards the stage, whose light reflects on her face. With her left shoulder towards the beholder, her body and face is turned away from us. She holds the fan in her right hand but across her left arm, which rests on the velvet cushion of the balony. In this gesture, the fan and her left shoulder appear to be on the same level of depiction with the beholder in front of her and the theatre room beyond. This way, by gesture and body language, the beholder is blocked out of her theatrical environment.
In a highly impressionistic manner, Mary Cassatt's limited color palette consists mainly of whites, blacks and reds in all their hues, enhanced with greens and yellows. The distinct strokes of clothes, accessories and surrounding are abandoned for a highly naturalistic depiction of the carnation of the woman's face.
Both the images of women with fans as well as the location of the theater loge or theater seat are favorites in the œuvre of Mary Cassatt. A selection of these can be found in Barbara Wells Sarudy's blog "It's about Time".
The imagery of Mary Cassatt's paintings of theaters resonate in the production design Martin Scorsese's film The Age of Innocence from 1993:
