Print of a woman in a blue, patterned dress, seated at a desk and licking an envelope closed.

The Letter

Mary Cassatt · 1890–91

View at the AIC ↗

Palette

Linen
44% of the image
White & cream · text contrast 14.2:1

Putty
23% of the image
Grey · text contrast 9.1:1

Taupe
13% of the image
Brown · text contrast 6.1:1

Slate blue
11% of the image
Blue · text contrast 6.3:1

Warm grey
6% of the image
Grey · text contrast 5.5:1

Pewter
3% of the image
Grey · text contrast 4.4:1

Colours measured by this site from the museum image (k-means in CIELAB). Names are the nearest in our own list and describe how the colour looks, not the pigment. Text on each chip uses whichever of black or white contrasts more (WCAG ratio shown). How

Details

Artist: Mary Cassatt
printed with Leroy (French, active 1876-1900)
Date: 1890–91
Type: Print
Medium: Color aquatint and drypoint on off-white laid paper
Size: Image/plate: 34.5 × 21.1 cm (13 5/8 × 8 5/16 in.); Sheet: 43.7 × 29.7 cm (17 1/4 × 11 3/4 in.)
Place: United States
Period: 19th century
Themes: Interiors · Reading and letters
Main colour: White & cream · lightness 71, colourfulness 10

Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection. Museum record. Public domain: the museum's is_public_domain field read true when we last checked (2026-10-25); image released under CC0. Licence rules