The Boating Party by Mary Cassatt

Cathy FitzGerald invites you to discover new details in old masterpieces. Each episode of Moving Pictures is devoted to a single artwork – and you’re invited to look as well as listen, by following a link to a high-resolution image made by Google Arts & Culture. Zoom in and you can see the pores of the canvas, the sweep of individual brushstrokes, the shimmer of pointillist dots.

This episode we're out on the water with the Impressionist, Mary Cassatt, looking at a masterpiece from the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. The Boating Party is a strikingly modern painting from an endlessly curious and innovative artist. A woman sits, a child wriggling in her lap, as a heavy-set man rows them across the water. It looks like a scene of leisure - so why does this 'party' feel so tense?

To see the high-resolution image of the painting made by Google Arts & Culture, visit www.bbc.co.uk/movingpictures. Scroll down and follow the links to explore The Boating Party by Mary Cassatt.

Interviewees: Frances Fowle, Kimberly Jones, Mary Morton, Chris Riopelle.
Producer and presenter: Cathy FitzGerald

Executive producer: Sarah Cuddon
Mix engineer: Mike Woolley
Art history consultant: Leah Kharibian

A White Stiletto production for BBC Radio 4

Image credit: Mary Cassatt, The Boating Party, 1893/1894, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.94