Cassatt carefully blended her colors, building up the pastel to create a sense of solidity and weight in the woman’s face and head. Elsewhere, her forms dissolve into a flurry of lines. Banjo playing was en vogue in the United States during the 1890s, especially among educated women. Cassatt made several images of women playing the instrument, regarded at the time as distinctively American. These scenes helped Cassatt, who was living and working in France, assert her connections both to fashion and to her native country.