Birth Year : 1845
Death Year : 1927
Country : US
Mary Cassatt, one of the two women and the only American to show with
the Impressionists, was born in Pittsburgh. She was the daughter of a millionaire
and spent her childhood in Europe with her family. When the Cassatt's returned
to live in Philadelphia, Mary studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art
until she was twenty-three. Then, against her father's wishes, she left
for Europe to study further and visit Italy, Spain, and Belgium before
going to Paris where, as she said, the sight of a pastel by Degas
changed her life. It was through Degas, who was more her sponsor than her
teacher, that she delighted to be relieved of the arbitrary standards established
for acceptance at the official Salons. Cassatt scrupulously separated her
social life from her artistic one and was in some ways aloof from the relaxed
artistic atmosphere around her.
Her subject matter was thus restricted to the ladylike pastimes and
scenes with which she was generally surrounded, but her technique and power
were by no means limited. She was a fine artist in her favorite mediums:
oil, pastel, etching, and lithography. Her work has the intellectualized
emotion of Degas; the soft contours of Renoir,
(particularly in her many renderings of children and mothers), and the
flat surface of Manet. In addition, she
was strongly influenced by Japanese prints and she was extremely adept
at handling large color masses while she achieved the Oriental quality
of cleanliness with a sure and incisive draughtsmanship. By far the wealthiest
and the most financially influential of the Impressionists, Cassett did
a great deal, unobtrusively, to help her associates. Not only did she purchase
many of their works for herself, but she also encouraged her friends, the
Havemeyers and the Stillmans, to collect Impressionist art and, when conditions
were desperate, she even loaned money to the Durand-Ruel Gallery to promote
an exhibition. Cassatt, who received very little recognition in her own
country until long after her death, lived and worked in France throughout
her life and was awarded the French Legion of Honor in 1904.
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Mary
Cassatt
Breakfast
in Bed
Mary
Cassatt
Bath,
The
Mary
Cassatt
Mother
and Child
Mary
Cassatt
Children
Playing on the Beach
Mary
Cassatt
Child
with a Straw Hat
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