Focus on Woman with a Pearl Necklace in a Loge and discuss the Description.
This oil on canvas painting is 32 x 23 1/2 inches (81.3 x 59.7 cm). The painting shows a woman sitting on a large red chair in the balconies of the Paris Opéra House. The figure is seated in front of a massive mirror that is reflecting the theater scene that the woman is experiencing; it is also giving us the view point that the woman is having. As with Degas, Cassatt paid close attention to the "effects of artificial lighting on flesh tones". The woman is sitting enjoying the sights, the city nightlife that most Impressionists were fascinated with, as she people watches. She is dressed up, as with what was expected of going to a theater, with a peach colored dress, makeup, pearls, gloves and hair pinned back. 
She is holding a fan and a flower is attached to the bodice of the dress. She looks bemused with what she is seeing. The quick painterly style of Impressionist paintings can be seen here as Cassatt was heavily inspired by it. The background is very gestural and loose as people are carved out in simple brush marks of color. An elaborate chandelier is also shown in the reflection of the mirror. The rich colors of the painting draw the viewer in, deep shadows create contrast against the brightness of the light source. The brush strokes within the dress itself give a texture to it and a liveliness to the piece. Cassatt paints her sister up close, giving the viewer a place in the opera box next to Lydia. Being a genre painter she was able to reproduce scenes of everyday life, domestic settings and parties, which she would romanticize to help create an ethereal air of wonder around the women she painted.
Besides the quick brush strokes that was indicative of Impressionist paintings, Cassatt also implemented the tipped perspective that was common in many of Degas' paintings. This caused the viewers to never be quite able to figure out where in the painting they would be standing if they were present in that scene.
Degas genre painter