This print is an important and rare color drypoint, soft ground and color aquatint. The aquatint represents two women, one holding a naked baby, in a walled garden with espaliered pears. The child reaches to take a bunch of grapes from the woman on the ladder.

Cassatt, a painter and printmaker, was active in Paris in the late nineteenth century where she was an important member of Impressionist and Post-Impressiionist circles. She began making color prints after a large exhibition of Japanese woodcuts at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1890. She was excited by the distinctive palette and transparent color effects in these prints, and was inspired by the compositions and narrative strategies of Japanese artists such as Utamaro.

Cassatt developed the plate for Gathering Fruit through working eleven states. She did all of the inking and printing by herself. The Art Center's impression of this print is one of only two known impressions of the eighth state, Its unique coloration, with wonderful greens, blue-greens, and pinks, differs markedly from other prints taken from the plate.

Source: News, September October 1999.