Offering the Panal to the Bullfighter

During an extended stay in Spain in 1873, Cassatt made several paintings of local customs. This work depicts a young woman flirtatiously offering a glass of water to a bullfighter, who dips panal (honeycomb) into it to make a refreshing drink. The rich colors and dazzling brushwork are inspired by the seventeenth-century Spanish painter Diego Velázquez, whose "fine and simple manner" Cassatt praised.

Credit: Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955