Two pale-skinned little girls sit back-to-back on a sandy beach, almost filling the width of this vertical painting. The girls wear matching pale, ice-blue pinafores over short sleeve, ocean-blue dresses. Both sit with their legs stretched in front of them and angled to our right. The girl closest to us, to our left, looks down at the denim-blue pail and wooden shovel she holds between her ankles. She holds the long-handled shovel in her near hand with the end inside the pail. She has a chubby, flushed, round face with blond hair and rosy arms and legs. She wears black shoes and appears to…
Gallery mode Full size at the museum

Window mode follows your eyes with your camera, in this browser only: no picture or position leaves your device.

Children Playing on the Beach

Mary Cassatt (American, 1844 - 1926)

1884

Medium
oil on canvas
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
overall: 97.4 × 74.2 cm (38 3/8 × 29 3/16 in.) ; framed: 117.79 × 94.3 × 6.99 cm (46 3/8 × 37 1/8 × 2 3/4 in.)
Culture
American
Museum
National Gallery of Art, CF
Credit line
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection
Rights
Public domain (NGA Open Access, CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed

View at the National Gallery of Art