Susan on a Balcony Holding a Dog
by CASSATT, Mary, Oil on canvas, 101 x 65 cm
Cassatt preferred to paint friends and acquaintances. Her sister Lydia posed frequently. After Lydia died in 1882, Susan - probably a cousin of Cassatt’s housekeeper, Mathilde Vallet - made continual appearances, posing for no fewer than nine pictures up to 1883, the last and most mature of which was Susan on a Balcony Holding a Dog.