Mary Cassatt (1844-1926)
MADE IN AMERICA
“There’s only one thing in life for a woman; it’s to be a mother... A woman artist must be...capable of making primary sacrifices.”
—Mary Cassatt
Although Mary Cassatt never married or had children, she was exceptionally gifted when it came to capturing quiet, tender moments between mother and child on canvas. Born into wealth in Allegheny City (Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania, Cassatt was well educated and raised in the shadow of the 19th-century proviso that she’d eventually fulfill her role as a proper Victorian wife and mother. Instead, she chose to be an artist.
She attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia for a time, followed by a move to Paris in 1865 to study the old masters. The outbreak of war in 1870 forced her to return to America. Her father, adamantly opposed to her chosen career, refused to provide for anything more than her basic needs, and, for a time, it appeared as though Cassatt might abandon art altogether; however, a small commission yielded income sufficient enough for her to return to Europe. She studied art in Spain, Italy, and Belgium before settling down in Paris.
Cassatt achieved some success in the early 1870s. In 1877, after repeated rejections by the Salon, Edgar Degas invited her to exhibit with an independent group called the Impressionists; she instantly felt at home. Degas continued to mentor Cassatt, and the two remained close friends. A strong advocate of her fellow Impressionists, Cassatt used her influence in affluent social circles to secure purchases of their art, which subsequently helped introduce the genre to America. Today she is hailed as one of America’s premier Impressionist artists. —RJR
Notable works: In the Loge, 1878; The Child’s Bath, 1893; Breakfast in Bed, 1897 (page 322).