Cassatt & Friends at SBMA: Following the Artist’s Hand from Drawing to Print

A finished image can conceal the choices that made it. A line looks inevitable, a color seems perfectly placed, and the person on the page appears simply to have arrived there. But drawings and prints can also reveal decisions in motion: a mark pressed into paper, a second version turned in reverse, a pigment transferred rather than laid down directly. At the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Cassatt & Friends invites visitors to look at those transformations rather than rush past them. 🎨

The exhibition runs September 20, 2026, through January 3, 2027. SBMA says it brings together 20 works by Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Cézanne, James McNeill Whistler, and others. Its centerpiece is Cassatt’s Simone in a White Bonnet Seated with Clasped Hands (No. 1), a pastel counterproof in the museum’s collection. The subject is not just Cassatt’s familiar world of intimate portraiture. It is the vivid, tactile conversation between drawing and printmaking.

This guide explains that conversation in plain language, offers close-looking questions for several works pictured on the museum’s official exhibition page, and gives practical details for a visit. It is based on museum and institutional sources, not a claimed firsthand tour. The image below is original conceptual editorial artwork. It does not reproduce a Cassatt work, document the exhibition, or show any actual object in the gallery.

Original SantaBarbara.Art editorial illustration. Its imagined paper and marks suggest the processes discussed here; they are not historical works or documentary images of SBMA.

Why a counterproof can change how you see a drawing ✨

SBMA describes the centerpiece as a counterproof made from a pastel drawing. In the process it outlines, the artist dampens the original pastel and presses it against another sheet. Some pigment transfers, creating a mirror image. A mark once made directly by hand appears again through contact, pressure, and reversal. It is related to the original yet not identical to it.

That simple physical idea is an excellent way into the show. Imagine placing two versions side by side. One may feel immediate, with the force of a mark that touched its final surface first. The other may feel lighter or altered, bearing the trace of a previous image. The difference is not necessarily a hierarchy. It asks what counts as an original, what counts as a print, and how an artist might use variation as a way of thinking.

The museum identifies Cassatt’s Simone in a White Bonnet Seated with Clasped Hands (No. 1) as a pastel counterproof on Japan paper, dated about 1905–1915. In the official reproduction, a young girl in a white bonnet is shown in profile. Those basic facts come from SBMA’s object caption and exhibition description. The most rewarding questions are visual: where does the pastel feel dense, where does the paper seem to breathe through, and how does the softness of a transferred image affect the sitter’s presence?

Because a counterproof reverses an image, it can also make us aware of composition. We often read a portrait as if it could not have been arranged otherwise. Reversal reminds us that placement, direction, and the relationship between figure and empty space are choices. The museum says the exhibition uses this work to explore the closeness of drawing and printmaking among Cassatt and her contemporaries. That makes the act of looking at a surface—not merely identifying a sitter—the heart of the visit.

Mary Cassatt was more than a painter

Cassatt is often introduced through her paintings, but the National Gallery of Art’s 2026 account of her printmaking makes clear how ambitious and experimental that part of her practice was. The National Gallery notes that she began making prints around 1879 in the company of Edgar Degas, learned methods including soft-ground etching, drypoint, and aquatint, and used proofs to test and revise an image. The point is not to memorize a list of techniques. It is to see printmaking as a place for decisions, not simply a mechanical way to duplicate a drawing.

A drawing can begin with one artist and one surface. A print may involve a prepared plate, tools, ink, pressure, paper, and sometimes collaborators. Each stage offers a choice. A line may be scratched, softened, strengthened, or removed. A color may be introduced in one pass and adjusted in another. The National Gallery describes Cassatt’s color-print workshop as a place of sustained experimentation. That history helps explain why a show organized around drawings and prints can reveal an artist’s thought process.

The National Gallery also documents Cassatt’s celebrated group of ten color prints from 1890–1891, a project influenced by Japanese woodcuts. That body of work is useful context for understanding her breadth, but this article does not imply that the full group is on view in Santa Barbara. For the contents of Cassatt & Friends, SBMA’s exhibition page is the source to consult. Distinguishing an artist’s larger career from a specific local exhibition keeps the visit grounded in what is actually promised.

Nor should Cassatt be reduced to one subject. Her portrayals of women and children can feel familiar precisely because reproductions have circulated so widely. Yet the process behind those images can be demanding and strange: copper plates, resistant grounds, trial proofs, and careful registration. Seeing the work as made, revised, and materially particular opens a different story from the easy label “gentle scenes of domestic life.”

Meet the “friends” through material and mood 🖼️

The exhibition’s title suggests company, but it does not mean every artist worked in the same style. SBMA lists Morisot, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cézanne, and Whistler among the artists in its 20-work selection. The museum’s official page pictures individual works by several of them, offering a set of distinct ways to notice mark-making. Their presence broadens the question from “What did Cassatt make?” to “What could drawing and printmaking do for artists of this period?”

SBMA captions Berthe Morisot’s Portrait of Marthe Givaudan (1892) as pastel on canvas. A pastel mark on canvas carries a different relationship to its support than a transferred mark on paper. On the official page, the sitter faces the viewer against a floral background. Rather than comparing likenesses alone, compare where texture announces itself. Does the background feel built from marks, while the face asks for a different kind of attention? What happens when a portrait’s setting is as tactile as the person it frames?

The museum also pictures Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s The Jockey (1899), a color lithograph on paper, showing jockeys riding away. Movement is the obvious entry point. But try looking at how the image directs the eye: the energy of the figures, the space they leave behind, and the relationship between a reproducible print and an apparently fleeting scene. It is a good foil for a still portrait. One medium can accommodate speed as readily as quiet.

Another official image is Cassatt’s Reine Lefebvre and Margot (1902), a pastel on paper mounted on canvas, identified by SBMA as a work from the Hammer Museum’s Armand Hammer Collection. The museum’s reproduction shows an adult and child together. Their relationship can be read emotionally, but the exhibition encourages another layer of attention. How do the pastel’s color and edges help define the distance between them? Where is the artist most exact, and where does she leave room for atmosphere?

These are looking prompts, not claims about how the works are hung or about the artists’ private intentions. The official labels and the objects themselves should guide any more specific reading. Our aim is to let material facts—pastel, counterproof, lithograph, paper, canvas—become invitations rather than intimidating vocabulary.

Three useful ways to slow down in the gallery

First, look from far enough away to see the whole image. Let the composition make its first impression. Which color, face, gesture, or blank area catches you? The impulse to move closer immediately is understandable, but the overall design often tells you what a work wants you to notice.

Second, move nearer where the museum permits. Look for an edge: a cheek meeting the background, a sleeve ending against paper, a line that seems to stop and restart. Even if glass or lighting limits how much you can see, try to notice whether a mark looks rubbed, drawn, printed, or transferred. There is no need to identify the process with certainty. The question itself sharpens your attention.

Third, read the medium line on the label and look again. A pastel counterproof, a pastel on canvas, and a color lithograph are different objects. If the image initially felt like a “picture” in a generic sense, the medium may reveal its specific set of possibilities. The label is not a quiz answer; it is a second lens.

For a companion exercise, choose one work with a single sitter and one with more than one figure. Compare how each handles space around the body. Does the background feel present or intentionally withheld? Are relationships conveyed by touch, glance, distance, color, or the direction of lines? These observations can produce a richer response than trying to identify a definitive meaning on the first pass.

If you visit with someone else, exchange observations before reading each other’s interpretation. One person may notice a color transition; another may notice the paper. That small conversation is especially apt for an exhibition about related processes and artistic dialogue. You are not required to agree. Close looking is strengthened by seeing what you initially missed.

Why the physical object matters

Most of us encounter historical art first as a screen image. Screens are wonderfully accessible, but they flatten differences in scale, paper, tone, and surface. The exhibition’s central idea depends on those differences. A counterproof is a transfer onto another sheet, not simply a digital mirror command. A pastel is dry pigment held in or on a surface, not merely a soft-looking patch of color. A lithograph is a print with its own matrix and history of making.

The National Gallery’s detailed Cassatt article shows how proofs can record a sequence of decisions. Although its examples are not a checklist for what SBMA displays, they offer a way to think: artists can revise while working across stages. The finished work may appear seamless, but its construction can be layered.

SBMA says the techniques in Cassatt & Friends often emphasize touch and the evidence of the artist’s hand, in contrast with more polished mass-produced printed matter. That distinction is not a claim that every handmade work is better than every mechanically produced one. It is a reminder to ask what kind of attention a surface invites. Does a line look hesitant, insistent, economical, repeated? Does a transfer keep a hint of the work that came before it?

The ability to make multiple impressions also complicates our casual understanding of “the original.” Some prints are produced in editions. Some states reveal changes. A counterproof is born from a specific act of contact. Rather than sorting everything into original versus copy, consider the evidence of decision-making in each object. An artist’s hand may be visible in a line, a color choice, a revised plate, or the selection of the final sheet.

A Santa Barbara visit with room for comparison 🌴

The museum places Cassatt & Friends in its Von Romberg and Emmons galleries. SBMA is at 1130 State Street, Santa Barbara, and its visitor page currently lists regular hours as Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the first Thursday open until 8 p.m.; it is closed Mondays and on listed holidays. Hours and admission arrangements can change, so check that page before traveling.

The museum lists general adult nonmember admission at $15, while warning that general prices may not apply to certain special or traveling exhibitions. That qualification matters. Rather than assume the rate for your own visit, check SBMA’s current ticketing and visitor information. The same page lists categories of free or reduced admission. Readers needing specific access information can consult the museum’s accessibility page or contact it directly.

Give yourself enough time for more than a quick pass. The exhibition has 20 works, according to SBMA, but its central questions reward attention to a few objects rather than a count of everything seen. A counterproof may be small enough that its subtlety asks you to linger. A print’s energy can become clearer after you compare it with a pastel. Your visit can be as short or as long as you need, but choose at least one pairing to study.

There are natural connections elsewhere in the museum. Our recent guide to Stage Craft: Pictorialist Photography and Performance examines how photographers used staging, print processes, and atmosphere to argue for photography as art. The two exhibitions address different histories and objects, but together they encourage a productive question: how does a medium reveal the artist’s choices? For another SBMA perspective on memory and imagination, see SantaBarbara.Art’s As if in a Dream guide.

If your interest in transfer and paper continues after the visit, our Santa Barbara coastal cyanotype project offers a different, beginner-friendly image-making exercise. It is not a substitute for historical printmaking, but it shares the delight of watching light and a prepared surface create a surprising image.

Frequently asked questions

What is Cassatt & Friends about?

It is an SBMA exhibition about the close relationship between drawing and printmaking in works by Mary Cassatt and several contemporaries. The museum identifies 20 works and centers a pastel counterproof by Cassatt.

What is a counterproof?

In the process described by SBMA, a dampened pastel drawing is pressed against another sheet so pigment transfers and forms a mirror image. It is a physical transfer, not a digital reversal.

Is this only an exhibition of Cassatt paintings?

No. SBMA emphasizes drawing and printmaking. Its official page identifies a Cassatt pastel counterproof, a Cassatt pastel, a Morisot pastel, and a Toulouse-Lautrec lithograph among the pictured works. Consult the museum for the complete current checklist.

When can I see it?

SBMA lists the exhibition from September 20, 2026, through January 3, 2027. It is identified with the Von Romberg and Emmons galleries. Check the official exhibition and visitor pages for any changes before your trip.

How much does a visit cost?

SBMA’s current visitor page lists $15 for general adult nonmember admission and several free or reduced categories, but explicitly notes that special or traveling exhibitions may differ. Confirm the ticket applicable to your visit on the museum’s current page.

Is the image in this article a work from the exhibition?

No. It is original conceptual editorial artwork made for this guide. It does not reproduce or document a Cassatt, Morisot, Toulouse-Lautrec, or other exhibited work. The museum’s official page shows authenticated images and captions.

Look for the decisions, not just the finished image

The pleasure of Cassatt & Friends is not limited to recognizing famous names. It lies in noticing the decisions that stay visible: a transferred pastel, a lithographic line, a deliberate interval of blank paper, a portrait that holds together through texture and color. When those details come forward, the works stop looking like effortless images from the past. They become active records of artists testing what a mark can do—and invitations to look with equal care today.