Mary Cassatt was an American painter who lived from 1844 to 1926. She was one of the leading artists in the Impressionist movement in the late 1800s. After studying art in Pennsylvania and Europe, Cassatt moved to Paris in the 1860s where she met Edgar Degas and began exhibiting her work with the Impressionists in the late 1870s. Cassatt is known for her paintings focusing on the intimate relationships between mothers and children. She had a successful career as an Impressionist painter until vision problems forced her to stop painting in the 1910s.

1. Mary Cassatt
Belotti/Leone
5B 2013

2. 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).

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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

7. Early Cassatt paintings displayed in the
Salon

8. 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.

9. 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!

10. Little Girl in a Blue Armchair, 1878

11. Reading Le Figaro,
1878

12. Portrait of the Artist,
1877

13. 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.

14. 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.

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

16. • The Boating Party,
1893-94

17. The Nude Child Mother Holding a Child in her Arms

18. Mother and Child I Mother and Child XI

19. Breakfast in Bed

20. 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.

21. 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/