Mary Cassatt Belotti/Leone 5B 2013

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) An American woman born in Pennsylvania in 1844, Mary Cassatt was one of the leading artists in the Impressionist movement of the later part of the 1800s. She was known as one of “le trois grandes dames” of Impressionism (along with Bracquemond and Morisot). She was a groundbreaker because the discipline of art (especially that of Paris in the mid-19th century) was a discipline for men, not for women.

From Pennsylvania to Paris Cassatt’s family was upper-class and she spent some time in Europe as a child in the 1850s. She enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she encountered resentment from the male faculty and students. She became more and more dissatisfied with the quality of the school in Pennsylvania and decided to move to Europe in 1860 in order to pursue the study of painting. France at the time was equally chauvinistic and did not permit women to attend the school of fine arts in Paris, so she studied via private lessons at the Louvre, where she obtained a permit and copied paintings alongside several other women. She did this from 1866 until 1868, when she submitted a painting to the Salon and was accepted.

A Mandoline Player After studying privately for two years in Paris, A Mandoline Player was Cassatt’s first painting to be displayed in the Salon, in 1868. Her father disapproved of her career in painting, so she used a pseudonym, Mary Stevenson so as not to be found out.

Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) At the outbreak of the war, Cassatt left France and returned to Pennsylvania. Back in the US, however, she felt misunderstood and undervalued, and her father refused to support her painting. She attempted to make some money for herself by trying to sell some of her early paintings, but the great Chicago fire destroyed almost all of her early work.

Back to Europe Finally, a church official in Pennsylvania commissioned Cassatt to paint copies of work by Correggio, which gave her the opportunity to return to Europe and gave her the money to restart her career. Her paintings were displayed in the Salon throughout the 1870s until her desire to grow and experiment as an artist finally began to clash with the standards of the Salon. NOTE the difference between her Salon paintings and her Impressionist paintings Like all artists, Mary needed money in order to paint. Without financial support from her family, she had to find a way (as a woman in the 1860s) to make money for herself.

Early Cassatt paintings displayed in the Salon Two women throwing flowers during Carnival 1872; On the balcony 1872; the Salon preferred dark backgrounds, flattering depiction of subjects,

Edgar Degas At the end of the 1870s, she met and became friends with Edgar Degas. Feeling increasingly constrained by the Salon’s inflexible guidelines, Cassatt drew courage from Degas, whose pastels inspired her to continue in her own direction. 1855-56 self-portrait

Impressionist Exhibitions At Degas’ invitation, Mary Cassatt exhibited 11 of her paintings with the Impressionists in 1879 (some of them follow). The show was a huge success both commercially and critically. Degas’ new rule in 1879: the Salon or the Impressionists, but not both. Monet, Cezanne, and Renoir all chose the Salon that year!

Little Girl in a Blue Armchair, 1878

Reading Le Figaro, 1878 Portrait of her mother

Portrait of the Artist, 1877 Self portrait of Cassatt

Matters of the heart and of style Shortly after her first exhibitions with the Impressionists, Cassatt was forced to withdraw from the art world in order to care for her ill mother and sister. Her sister died in 1882 and her mother became very ill. Cassatt stopped painting for a short period. By 1885, she had slowly started up again, but by 1886 she had done her last show with the Impressionists and had withdrawn from identification with any particular artistic style.

Women and children She began to paint in a simpler and more straightforward style. A major theme for Cassatt was the intimate bond between mothers and their children. In general, she was interested in depicting both the social and private lives of women on canvas.

(above) Woman and child seated in a garden (left) Young mother sewing

The Boating Party, 1893-94

The Nude Child Mother Holding a Child in her Arms

Mother and Child I Mother and Child XI

Breakfast in Bed

Later in life In 1910 she took a trip to Egypt with her brother. The magnificent ancient art made her question her own talent as an artist. Soon after their return home, her brother died unexpectedly. She was unable to paint again until 1912. However, in 1915 she was forced to give up painting altogether as she began to go blind from diabetes. As the story goes, she died full of bitterness about not having been able to paint for the last decade of her life.

References (2013). The Biography Channel web site. Retrieved 12:28, Jan 16, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/mary-cassatt-9240820. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Cassatt http://www.wikipaintings.org/