In the spring of 1876, Mary Cassatt was newly arrived in Paris, determined to break into the city’s fiercely competitive art world. That year, she submitted Mrs. Duffee Seated on a Striped Sofa, Reading to the Salon—the only time this painting would appear in a public exhibition during her lifetime.

The subject, Mrs. Duffee, was an American friend of Cassatt’s, and the painting is among the earliest examples of Cassatt’s lifelong fascination with women engaged in quiet, everyday activities. Its appearance at the Salon marked a turning point: Cassatt would soon reject the academic conventions of the Salon for the radical company of the Impressionists. A woman sits absorbed in her book, her figure framed by the bold stripes of a Victorian sofa.

Cassatt captures the precise moment of private concentration, the sitter’s face turned away from the viewer, her world defined by the printed page. The striped upholstery, rendered with brisk, confident brushstrokes, both grounds Mrs. Duffee in her domestic setting and subtly animates the scene.

The absence of narrative drama is deliberate; instead, Cassatt directs our attention to the act of reading itself—a motif she would revisit throughout her career. Unlike Edouard Manet’s more provocative depictions of women reading, Cassatt’s approach is intimate, respectful, and quietly radical in its focus on female autonomy. The painting’s subsequent history remains somewhat obscure, as records of its early ownership are incomplete. What is clear is that Mrs.

Duffee Seated on a Striped Sofa, Reading stands at the threshold of Cassatt’s mature style, just before her association with Edgar Degas and the Impressionists transformed her palette and technique. Today, the work is celebrated as an early declaration of Cassatt’s commitment to portraying the inner lives of women, a theme that would define her contribution to late nineteenth-century art. Its presence in museum collections offers viewers a rare glimpse into the formative years of one of America’s most important expatriate artists.