Mary Cassatt
Portrait of Frances L. Hammond as a Child1898

On view:

Geffen Galleries

Pastel portrait of a young girl in a white dress with teal bows, seated in a red chair and holding a doll, against a loosely stroked green background

Artist or Maker: Mary Cassatt
United States, Pennsylvania, Allegheny City, active France, 1844-1926
Title: Portrait of Frances L. Hammond as a Child
Culture: American
Date Made: 1898
Medium: Pastel on paper
Dimensions: Sheet: 30 1/2 × 25 in. (77.47 × 63.5 cm) Frame: 41 5/8 × 35 3/4 × 4 1/2 in. (105.73 × 90.81 × 11.43 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of A. Jerrold Perenchio
Accession Number: M.2025.64.34
Classification: Drawings
Collecting Area: European Painting and Sculpture
Curatorial Notes: Born into a wealthy family in Pittsburgh, Mary Cassatt decided to make her living as a painter at the age of fifteen, enrolling at the prestigious Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, then moving to Paris to continue her studies in 1866. She successfully submitted works to the annual Salon between 1868 and 1877, when she met Edgar Degas and became affiliated with the Impressionist movement. Women were her primary subject matter, pictured in domestic settings and in public spaces.

In 1898, Cassatt made her first visit to the United States in nearly three decades, traveling to Philadelphia and Boston, where she painted several portraits of upper-class sitters. Gardiner Greene Hammond Jr. (on John Singer Sargent’s recommendation) commissioned Cassatt to make two pastel portraits, one of his daughter, the other of his two sons, at their home in Boston. Here, four-year-old Frances Lathrop Hammond sits on a straight-backed wooden chair, wearing a beribboned dress and cradling a doll wrapped in a blanket. The varying textures of the fabrics, and the delicacy of the girl’s cheeks and hair, attest to Cassatt’s mastery of pastel, refined over many years.

Leah Lehmbeck

2016/2024
Provenance: Gardiner Greene (1859–1921) and Esther Lathrop Fiske (1868–1955) Hammond Jr., Boston, MA, commissioned from the artist in 1898; probably Hammond Family, on temporary loan to the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA, 6 January 1943–5 July 1945;(1) Private collection, Santa Barbara (probably Hammond Family), in 1970.(2) [Coe Kerr Gallery Inc., New York, sold 9 November 1983 to];(3) A. J. Perenchio (1930–2017), Los Angeles, gifted 2025 to; Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Footnotes
(1) According to Brooke McManus, Archives Assistant, Fogg Art Museum, the Cassatt portrait “was at the Fogg from 6 January 1943–5 July 1945, not for exhibition, but on temporary loan for Agnes Mongan. Miss Mongan was Keeper of Drawings at the time” (email to Patricia Teter-Schneider, 21 April 2015). The Fogg will not disclose the owner at the time of this loan, however Mason Hammond was associated with the Fogg during these years and he was related to the G. G. Hammond family.
(2) Esther Fiske Hammond separated from her husband, Gardiner Greene Hammond, and relocated permanently to Santa Barbara in 1912 with her children. She lived in the area until her death in 1955. Frances Lathrop Hammond Helm (1894–1973), the subject of the portrait, married Mackinley Helm (1896–1963) and lived in the Santa Barbara area until her death in 1973. For more on the Hammonds in Santa Barbara, see Michael Redmon, “The Hammonds and Their Montecito Estate,” Santa Barbara Independent, 15 June 2010.
(3) Object record from Coe Kerr Gallery Inc., in owner’s object file.
Selected Bibliography: Lehmbeck, Leah, ed. Impressionist and Modern Art: The A. Jerrold Perenchio Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich: DelMonico Books/Prestel, 2016.
Copyright: photo © Fredrik Nilsen

Mary Cassatt
Portrait of Frances L. Hammond as a Child1898

On view:

Geffen Galleries

Artist or Maker: Mary Cassatt
United States, Pennsylvania, Allegheny City, active France, 1844-1926
Title: Portrait of Frances L. Hammond as a Child
Culture: American
Date Made: 1898
Medium: Pastel on paper
Dimensions: Sheet: 30 1/2 × 25 in. (77.47 × 63.5 cm) Frame: 41 5/8 × 35 3/4 × 4 1/2 in. (105.73 × 90.81 × 11.43 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of A. Jerrold Perenchio
Accession Number: M.2025.64.34
Classification: Drawings
Collecting Area: European Painting and Sculpture
Curatorial Notes: Born into a wealthy family in Pittsburgh, Mary Cassatt decided to make her living as a painter at the age of fifteen, enrolling at the prestigious Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, then moving to Paris to continue her studies in 1866. She successfully submitted works to the annual Salon between 1868 and 1877, when she met Edgar Degas and became affiliated with the Impressionist movement. Women were her primary subject matter, pictured in domestic settings and in public spaces.

In 1898, Cassatt made her first visit to the United States in nearly three decades, traveling to Philadelphia and Boston, where she painted several portraits of upper-class sitters. Gardiner Greene Hammond Jr. (on John Singer Sargent’s recommendation) commissioned Cassatt to make two pastel portraits, one of his daughter, the other of his two sons, at their home in Boston. Here, four-year-old Frances Lathrop Hammond sits on a straight-backed wooden chair, wearing a beribboned dress and cradling a doll wrapped in a blanket. The varying textures of the fabrics, and the delicacy of the girl’s cheeks and hair, attest to Cassatt’s mastery of pastel, refined over many years.

Leah Lehmbeck

2016/2024
Provenance: Gardiner Greene (1859–1921) and Esther Lathrop Fiske (1868–1955) Hammond Jr., Boston, MA, commissioned from the artist in 1898; probably Hammond Family, on temporary loan to the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA, 6 January 1943–5 July 1945;(1) Private collection, Santa Barbara (probably Hammond Family), in 1970.(2) [Coe Kerr Gallery Inc., New York, sold 9 November 1983 to];(3) A. J. Perenchio (1930–2017), Los Angeles, gifted 2025 to; Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Footnotes
(1) According to Brooke McManus, Archives Assistant, Fogg Art Museum, the Cassatt portrait “was at the Fogg from 6 January 1943–5 July 1945, not for exhibition, but on temporary loan for Agnes Mongan. Miss Mongan was Keeper of Drawings at the time” (email to Patricia Teter-Schneider, 21 April 2015). The Fogg will not disclose the owner at the time of this loan, however Mason Hammond was associated with the Fogg during these years and he was related to the G. G. Hammond family.
(2) Esther Fiske Hammond separated from her husband, Gardiner Greene Hammond, and relocated permanently to Santa Barbara in 1912 with her children. She lived in the area until her death in 1955. Frances Lathrop Hammond Helm (1894–1973), the subject of the portrait, married Mackinley Helm (1896–1963) and lived in the Santa Barbara area until her death in 1973. For more on the Hammonds in Santa Barbara, see Michael Redmon, “The Hammonds and Their Montecito Estate,” Santa Barbara Independent, 15 June 2010.
(3) Object record from Coe Kerr Gallery Inc., in owner’s object file.
Selected Bibliography: Lehmbeck, Leah, ed. Impressionist and Modern Art: The A. Jerrold Perenchio Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich: DelMonico Books/Prestel, 2016.