Sleepy Thomas Sucking His Thumb

A pastel now in the Kunsthaus Zürich, this work depicting a sleepy baby sucking its thumb belongs to Cassatt's intimate studies of infants in states of unconscious self-absorption. The baby sucking its thumb — a universal infant self-comfort behavior — is captured with the directness and affection Cassatt brought to all her infant subjects. After 1890 Cassatt worked increasingly in pastel alongside oil, finding the medium particularly suited to the softness of infants' skin and the delicacy of the mother-child subjects she favored.

Pastel allows Cassatt to achieve particularly soft, velvety skin tones through layered strokes that blend into the paper surface. The baby's slightly compressed sleeping face and the thumb at the lips are rendered with gentle precision, the blending of pastel creating smooth transitions between the warm flesh tones that no oil medium could easily replicate.