Mary Cassatt

BIOGRAPHY

Mary Cassatt was born in 1845 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As a youngster, Cassatt was very interested in art - a passion which according to some, was not fully encouraged by her father, a banker. He did however support his daughter in her wishes to first study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and then travel extensively in Europe when she was in her early 20s.

Around the year 1868, the young Cassatt settled in Paris where she studied under an academic-type named Chaplin. However, Cassatt was far more impressed with the likes of Courbet and Manet and why wouldn't she be? They were after all, the main men of Impressionism.

At the age of 32, Cassatt was thrilled to meet Edgar Degas who was evidently just as taken with her and her work. He was so impressed, that he invited the artist to exhibit with the Impressionists, which she did from 1879-1881 and again in 1886.

It is important to note that Cassatt was not only considered an Impressionist artist, she was also an avid supporter of the group and of art in general. She regularly purchased paintings for her and her family, and her advice to American patrons of art, helped to build some of the most terrific art collections in the world.

Text © Andrea Mulder-Slater

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Special thanks to the Microsoft Corporation for permission to use following biographical information from Microsoft® Encarta '97:

Mary Cassatt was an American born painter who lived and worked in France as an important member of the impressionist group.

Cassatt was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. In 1861 she began to study painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, but proclaimed her independence by leaving in 1866 to paint in France. By 1872, after studying in the major museums of Europe, her style began to mature, and she settled in Paris. There her work attracted the attention of the French painter Edgar Degas, who invited her to exhibit with his fellow impressionists. One of the works she showed was The Cup of Tea (1879, Metropolitan Museum, New York City), a portrait of her sister Lydia in luminescent pinks. Beginning in 1882 Cassatt's style took a new turn. Influenced, like Degas, by Japanese woodcuts, she began to emphasize line over mass and experimented with asymmetric composition—as in The Boating Party (1893, National Gallery, Washington, D.C.)—and informal, natural gestures and positions. Portrayals of mothers and children in intimate relationship and domestic settings became her theme. Her portraits were not commissioned; instead, she used members of her own family as subjects. France awarded Cassatt the Legion of Honor in 1904; although she had been instrumental in advising the first American collectors of impressionist works, recognition came more slowly in the United States. With loss of sight she was no longer able to paint after 1914.

Mary Cassatt is truly unique in the world of art and is a thoroughly modern role model for girls and women. Not only was she one of the few artists to achieve critical success in her lifetime, she was the only American invited to exhibit with the Impressionists in Paris. Her accomplishments came at a time when few women dared to pursue their passion and have a career.

Mary Cassatt was born to a wealthy family in Pennsylvania and by the age of 16, she had decided to devote herself to the study of art. She attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and left for Europe at age 22. By 1872, after studying in the major museums of Europe, she settled in Paris, where she remained for the rest of her life.

Cassatt was fascinated by contemporary art. Although the Paris Salon had accepted one of her early paintings, The Mandolin Player (1868), her subsequent entries were refused. Thus she veered away from the Salonos formal rules and regulations, preferring the creative freedom of the "Impressionists." In 1877, Cassatt was invited to join the Impressionists by Edgar Degas who became her lifelong friend. "I accepted with joy," she said later. "At last I could work with absolute independence... I hated conventional art." A few paintings by Cassatt reprise Degas' style; Degas hung one of her oils prominently in his apartment.

Cassatt painted what she saw: interiors and gardens filled with the social activities of her family and friends. She gave life and meaning to the role of women. In 1888 she began her long series of mother and child portraits such as The Bath (1892). Both she and Degas became fascinated with printmaking, and Cassatt became an innovative printmaker reflecting a strong Japanese influence on her colours and configuration.

Her paintings were enormously popular in France, but Cassatt who considered herself "American" was largely ignored by America at the time, much to her disappointment. Today however, there is a strong resurgence of interest in her life and work.