Mary Cassatt; The Barefoot Child; 1897; pastel on off-white wove paper; 28 1/4 in. x 21 1/8 in. (71.76 cm x 53.66 cm); Early in 1897; Mary Cassatt delivered three major pastels to her dealer; Paul Durand-Ruel. 'Mere et enfant sur fond vert' went to the Musee Luxembourg and became Cassatt's first to enter into a museum collection. 'Nurse and Child' went to the Boston artist and collector Sarah Choate Sears and is now in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The third; 'The Barefoot Child;' was acquired by American collector Alfred Atmore Pope; and later was given to the Museum. The lines in Cassatt's pastels and prints are strong; smooth; but irregular strokes that reveal the constant decision making of her artistic process. While Cassatt had preferred the brush early in her career; drawing became central to her artistic identity in her maturity. One of the few critiques of her work she repeated in later years was Degas's backhanded compliment: 'no woman has a right to draw like that.'