Written by: Jacqueline Yu Mary Cassatt, perhaps the most influential female impressionist, was born on May 22, 1944 in Allegheny City, now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was born into the lap of luxury being the daughter of a prominent real estate broker who had married the daughter of a prosperous bank. As a child, she lived in Europe, specifically France and Germany, for five years where she became fluent in French and German. Due to her status, her schooling focused on homemaking, embroidery, music, sketching, and painting which were all considered essential skills for an elite woman. Cassatt showed a propensity for painting at a young age. She was tutored privately in art in Philadelphia and began attending the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts when she was only 16. At the academy, she faced rampant discrimination from peers and the male faculty alike, and she also disliked how slow the curriculum was and the lack of courses. In 1866, Cassatt decided to travel to Europe to study with Jean-Léon Gérome and Thomas Couture despite the objections of her family. She painted in relative obscurity until 1868 when one of her portraits was selected by the Paris Salon. However, before her career could truly take off, she had to return home to Philadelphia in 1870 due to the Franco-Prussian War. In Philadelphia, Cassatt had no artistic freedom. Her father was still obstinately against her career and refused to pay for anything related to her art. Cassatt faced extreme difficulties in selling any of her work, and, when she tried to sell in Chicago in 1871, her paintings were destroyed in a fire. Despite all of this misfortune, Cassatt persevered and, in 1871, the Archbishop of Pittsburgh commissioned her to paint copies of two works by Correggio. She returned to Europe to view the originals in Parma, Italy, and the money from the commission allowed her to resume her career in Europe. In 1872, Cassatt had her first major showing in the Paris Salon, and she was able to exhibit her work in the next four annual salon exhibitions. The salon launched her career but she hated its rules. After two years of traveling Europe, Cassatt moved to Paris officially and befriended impressionist legends like Edgar Degas and Gustave Courbet. Spurred on by her peers, she began to experiment with all kinds of bright colors and was no longer concerned with what was acceptable. The salon rebuffed her transformation and refused one of her entries in 1875 and both of her entries in 1877. She finally began exhibiting with the impressionists in 1879 and continued to work with them for the next two years. Her parents and her sister Lydia had joined her in France in 1877, and they became frequent models for her work in the late 1870s and 1880s. Tragically, her mother and sister became sick, and she went on hiatus in order to take care of them. In 1882, her sister died, but her mother regained health and Cassatt resumed painting. She began to drift away from the impressionist movement and stopped exhibiting with them after 1886. Her works had reached such popularity that, in 1894, she purchased a chateau in Le Mesnil-Théribus and travelled frequently between there and Paris. By 1900, Cassatt’s eyesight began to fail yet she continued to paint. In 1904, the French Government recognized her for her cultural contributions and awarded her the title Chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur. 1910 marked a pivotal point in Cassatt’s life when she took a trip to Egypt and the splendor of the ancient art made her question her own talent. Furthermore, her brother died from an illness contracted on the trip. Cassatt was unable to paint until 1912 and, even then, it was only two years until diabetes destroyed her vision. Mary Cassatt passed away in 1926 at her estate in Le Mesnil-Théribus, France in almost complete blindness. Cassatt’s art was characterized by her focus on women and children, her asymmetrical compositions, and experimentation with materials. Her art is subtly powerful, revealing the world that she, a respectable woman, was restricted to. She was honest in her depictions and refused to censor her work to meet some societal standard about the fragility of women. After 1878 and the Exposition Universelle which featured many Japanese prints, much like other artists, Cassatt created a series of 10 colored prints that emulated the Japanese style. Her focus switched from form to line and pattern, and she began experimenting with aquatint, drypoint, and soft ground. Her material was often dismissed as too feminine, but many realized that she had both technical skill and psychological insight. In contrast to their intended purpose, her work may have been popular because they filled a societal desire for women in domestic roles at a time where women were championing equality. Mary Cassatt is a lesser known artist of the Impressionist movement, at least to the public. Art enthusiasts and professionals alike are very familiar with Cassatt for her groundbreaking work as one of the few female impressionists. She was friends with many American elites and encouraged them to buy impressionist paintings which heavily influenced the progression of American taste in art. She was also largely responsible for selecting the works that make up the H.O. Havemeyer collection in the Met, and she helped many major collectors with the promise that their purchases would eventually be given to American art museums. She has helped preserve countless works of monumental art and is considered one of the most important American expatriate artists. For an artist so skilled and prominent during her life, her lack of recognition among the general populous speaks to the extent of erasure of female artists in art history. Mary Cassatt created work that was powerful, insightful, and well executed. Her works continue to inspire young artists around the world, and I can only hope that she receives the recognition she deserves in the future.
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ContributorsJACQUELINE YU is the co-founder of the MLWGS art history online magazine. She is an incredible artist and devotes much of her time to both participating in, experiencing, and appreciating art. Archives
April 2019
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