How does Woman with a Pearl Necklace in a Loge elucidate its Other work in the series?
Cassatt depicted the modern woman, giving her an elegance and beauty. "There is nothing more graciously honest and aristocratic than her portraits of young women". "Glamour, fashionable costume, exquisitely tasteful settings served to create an idea that was understood to be intensely modern, a pale legacy of the poet". She painted women of the emerging middle/upper class engaged in leisure activities such as attending the theater. Because of this she is considered a Realist because of her portrayal of women in daily lives, such as working women or women of leisure. The way in which she depicted the working-class woman in "maternal solicitude or personal anxiety are framed within" these narratives. She was also considered to be a Post-Impressionist.
Cassatt used her sister Lydia as the model for some of her paintings, such as Woman with a Pearl Necklace in a Loge. Cassatt and her sister were both living in France in 1877. Around this time Cassatt became close friends with Degas, and his influence can be seen in her work. Cassatt did a series of theater scenes, such as In the Box which was made in 1879 and The Loge from 1882.
Cassatt used Lydia in other paintings such as At the Theater which was made in 1879; it shows Lydia sitting in possibly the same red chair and leaning forward so that her arms are resting on her knees. The vast scene from Woman with a Pearl Necklace in a Loge isn't present here as the mirror is reflecting a dark room to the viewer. The chandelier and elegant dress are still present as is in other paintings. The air of festivity is felt from viewing this.
Another painting in this oeuvre is In the Box, which was made in 1879; this depicts two women in balcony seats in a theater watching the performance unfold before them. The background is handled in a very similar fashion with quick brushstrokes to convey the sense of other figures in the balcony seats across from them. They are using binoculars and are holding fans, one which obscures the woman furthest from the viewer. The Loge from 1882 is showing two women sitting down seeming to wait for a show to start. These paintings connect to Woman with a Pearl Necklace in a Loge because of the subject matter and the continuing themes of Impressionism, femininity, and relevance to the modern woman enjoying a night on the town. "Cassatt found a device for conjoining her fascination with the figure, notably of young women in smart day or evening clothes, with the need to situate them in a social setting-one of the ambiguous spaces of modernity which bourgeois femininity could occupy and contest."
Impressionism Realist Degas In the Box The Loge Post-Impressionist At the Theater