Mary Cassatt at the Louvre: The Paintings Gallery, 1879-1880. Cassatt said that she posed for Degas "only once in a while when he finds the movement difficult and the model cannot seem to get his idea." In fact, she modeled for her friend on numerous occasions beginning in 1879 for a pastel, At the Louvre, upon which Degas based this etching. Here, Cassatt is described as a connoisseur, posed with her sister Lydia in the Louvre examining paintings. Standing and seen from behind, wasp-waisted Cassatt strikes an elegant pose leaning against a slender umbrella. Her body reveals her character: intelligent and sensitive, finely bred and self assured.