Mary Cassatt

Cassatt was born on May 22, 1844 in Allegheny City, an area of Pennsylvania which is today part of Pittsburgh. She showed an interest in art at a young age and received private tutoring lessons, eventually entering the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1861. She left the academy in 1865 and a year later left to study art in France. After studing the paintings in the museums of Europe she set up her studio in Paris. In 1872 she exhibited with the Salon, which at the time was the only way for an artist to show their work. Cassatt when on to exhibit in the next four annnual Salon shows. Around this time she befriended the Impressionist painter Edgar Degas and became inspired by his work and that of Gustave Corbet. She shared an interest in painting bright colors, a la plein-air style, of the Impressionists and she had an inclination toward asymmetrical compositions. In 1879 she exhibited, for the first time, with the Impressionists and continued to do so on three subsequent occasions. The subject matter she chose was figurative, often depicting a maturnal or nurturing scence between mother and child, although she never had children of her own. Cassatt often used her family as subjects in her paintings and her later works show an influence from Japanese prints employing areas of flat color. She continued to paint until she lost her sight in 1914 and died on June 14, 1926 at her home in Chateau de Beaufresne, France. Her significance in the art world lies not only in that she was one of few woman that became well known, exhibiting with the Salon and the Impressionists but also in that she was instrumental in steering American taste toward Impressionism. Cassatt is credited largely with selecting the works that comprise the Impressionist collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Mary Cassatt Images:
Breakfast in Bed
Children Playing on the Beach
In the Box
Summertime, c.1894
The Bath
Two Children At The Seashore
Woman Combing Her Child’s Hair
Woman with Baby