Mary Cassatt
Mary Cassatt was an American artist who lived from 1844 to 1926, associated with the Impressionism art movement. She is most known for her paintings depicting both the social and private lives of women, most notably, moments between a mother and her child.
Cassatt was born into a wealthier middle-class family in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania that regarded travel as an integral part of their children’s education. After spending five years in Europe, she decided, against her parents’ wishes, to become an artist. At that time, not many women were professional artists and her parents wanted to try and shield her from the bohemian side of life and the less than honorable men that were in the art world. In fact, her father had said that he would rather see her dead then “living abroad as a bohemian”.
Mary Cassatt started studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. During her studies, as a woman, she encountered some difficulties. The Academy treated men and women differently. For example, the academy did not allow women artists to use live models. After becoming frustrated with these unfair methods practiced by her school, she dropped out and moved to France to further her education.
In France, Cassatt took private art lessons, and spent a lot of time sketching in the Louvre. Women were not yet allowed to enter the more well-respected art schools. She was selected to show work in the Paris Salon of 1868, but fearing retribution from her father, she displayed her work under just her first and middle name, Mary Stevenson. After the start of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Cassatt moved back to America. The lack of interest in her work that she found upon her return home almost made her give up art.
Moving back to France in 1871, Mary Cassatt finally achieved some success with the Paris Salon, displaying work under her name from 1872 through 1874. This period was a pivotal time in the art world. Many artists were getting frustrated with the Academia art style, Cassatt included, and some of them regrouped to form their own art movement. This movement famously became known as the Impressionist art movement.
In 1875, while in Paris, Cassatt met the French artist, Edgar Degas. Degas was a huge influence on Cassatt, and he introduced her to the Impressionists and consequently, their style. From his support, her work became more experimental. Her biggest muse was her older sister, Lydia. Lydia was Mary’s roommate in Paris during the 1870s and early 1880s and suffered from Bright’s disease which eventually claimed her life in 1882, but not before becoming immortalized in Cassatt’s work, such as “Woman with a Pearl Necklace in a Loge”.
Mary Cassatt displayed her work at the Impressionist exhibitions from 1879 to 1886 and became one of its leading members. She became good friends with Berthe Morisot, another female artist within the group. Cassatt became known for her candid and intimate portraits of women. In the prime of her career, she helped out young female artists, and encouraged the wealthier Americans to support them. By 1914, after suffering from diabetes, her sight had mostly left her and she stopped producing art. She died in 1926 at 82 years old.
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