MARY CASSATT (1884-1926)

AN ANALYSIS OF THE ARTIST'S WORK

Transgressing restrictions of a women’s place in society, Cassatt is heralded today as one of the most important Impressionist artists of the 19th century. She is difficult to place into a specific national school as she is vied over by both American and French cultures.

To the dismay of many art historians, Cassatt burned the majority of her early paintings in 1906. Her enrollment in the Antique Class at the PAFA suggests that she was a proficient draftsman. However, the limited availability of local models and works by the Old Masters proved Philadelphia to be an unfruitful environment for the young artist. She yearned for the challenges and adventures Europe had to offer.

Unwilling to submit to the gender boundaries of society, Cassatt pleaded with her father to allow her to travel to Europe. For several years her father appeared to reject her request, even reportedly stating that he “would almost rather see you [his daughter] dead” than have her become an artist in Paris. Travel to Europe elicited parental fears for their daughter’s moral reputation. Ultimately, the compassionate nature of Robert Cassatt allowed him to change his decision, permitting his youngest daughter to travel to Europe, but only if she went with her mother and several friends of the family.

Once in Europe, Cassatt was known to have spent hours copying the works of the Old Masters, most importantly those of Correggio and Parmigianino. In one of her earliest surviving works from 1872 titled Bacchante, the Romantic depiction of the female figure is heightened by rich, vibrant golds and greens typical of Renaissance artists. Although Cassatt studied under Gérôme, she never likened her painterly approach to the rigid, Neo-classical style of the French Academy. Instead, she admired the work of the French genre painters Edouard Frère and Paul Soyer. Studying under each of these artists at one point in her career, she learned to use nature and local villagers as models for her paintings. Though landscape scenes were integral to both genre painting and French Impressionism, Cassatt never excelled in this arena.

She was much more intrigued by the human form, especially the female figure, rather than the effects of light that the Impressionists so enthusiastically studied. In the years of her friendship with the Impressionists, especially Degas, Cassatt became interested in depicting the modern woman of the Parisian bourgeoisie. A key work of this period is her painting Woman with a Pearl Necklace in a Loge of 1879. While painted in delicate brushstrokes of pastel pigments typical of the style of Renoir and Degas, the painting is also a comment on the vanity of late 19th century Parisian society.

In 1880, Cassatt began to paint her mother, sisters, nieces, and nephews. Labeled today as her “mother and child” pictures, these works were previously believed to be about Cassatt’s own longing for marriage and children. However, since the inception of feminist discourse, the reading of these works has shifted. They are now perceived to be comments on modernity and the arenas of femininity. These early portraits would be the first of her works in what art historian Griselda Pollock claims to be a discourse on “the ages of women: infancy, childhood, youth or coming of age, adulthood, maternity, maturity, and old age.”

A feminist reading of Cassatt’s work should not be overlooked. In her later years, she contributed works to an exhibition in New York that benefited the Suffragist movement. At the turn of the century, Cassatt was surrounded by the decadence and chauvinism of 19th-century Paris. Known to have purposefully chosen everyday, unattractive models and then dressed them in expensive gowns from local fashion boutiques, Cassatt created in her paintings a dichotomy between what Griselda Pollock would later argue to be “ugliness and beauty.” To further add to this concept, Cassatt painted her finely attired, “ugly” models in exquisite, airy pastels. Layered with conceptual meaning, these works, nevertheless, capture the intimate moments between the artist and the influential, strong women in her life.

Aside from her paintings, Cassatt also was a pioneering printmaker in the Western world. Like many of the French Impressionists, she had an affinity for Japanese woodblock prints and owned works by the 18th century Japanese artist, Utamaro. Interestingly, many of Cassatt’s prints of mother and child strongly resemble Utamaro’s series of the same subject matter.

Although she never was to receive critical acclaim from American audiences during her lifetime, Cassatt helped to shape America’s early art collections. In 1874, she began a lifelong friendship with Louisine Elder, who later married Henry O. Havemeyer. With the guidance of Cassatt, the couple created one of the most prestigious collections of art in American history. The Havemeyer collection has since been donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the majority of the museum’s Impressionist works, which include several works by Cassatt, come from this collection.

AWARDS & AFFILIATIONS

Art Club of Philadelphia
Associate of National Academy of Design
Chevalier of Legion of Honor of France
Société des Peintres-Graveurs
Women’s Art Club of New York

COLLECTIONS

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, Spain
Birmingham Museum of Art, AL
Butler Institute of American Art, OH
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH
Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Harvard University Art Museums, Boston, MA
Hill-Stead Museum, Farmington, CT
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.
Hunter Museum of American Art, TN
Huntington Library, San Marino, CA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, France
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
San Diego Museum of Art, California
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design, RI
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, PA
Philadelphia Museum of Art , Philadelphia, PA
Portland Art Museum, OR

CHRONOLOGY

1844 Mary Stevenson Cassatt born in Allegheny, PA to Katherine Kelso Johnston and Robert Simpson Cassatt
1851-58 Family travels to Europe and briefly settles in Paris, Heidelberg and Darmstadt
1860-2 Completes instruction in the Antique Class at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
1863-5 Family moves to the Pennsylvania countryside during the American Civil War
1865 Travels to Paris and becomes a private student of Jean-Léon Gérôme
1866-67 Becomes a pupil of Charles Chaplin and studies under Edouard Frère and Paul Soyer
1868 Cassatt’s The Mandolin is accepted into the Paris Salon
1869 Rejected by the Paris Salon, tours the French and Italian countryside
1870 Visits Rome with her mother and studies under Charles Belay
1871 Briefly sets up a studio in Philadelphia, but eventually returns to Europe with friend, Emily Sartain
1872 Travels to Parma, Italy then to Madrid and Seville, Spain
1873 Tours Belgium, Holland, and Italy
1874 Studies under Thomas Couture and meets Louisine Elder (later Havemeyer)
1875 Paris Salon refuses one of Cassatt’s paintings
1​877 Ceases to exhibit at the Paris Salon and instead, joins the Impressionist group under Degas’ invitation
1879 First exhibition with the Impressionists and begins to experiment with printing techniques
1880 Stays with her family at Marly-le-Roi and begins to paint her nieces and nephews
1886 Work is shown in the first major Impressionist exhibition in the Unites States
1888 Completes first work in a series of mother and child pictures
1889 Views a major exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints which further prompts interest in the medium
1892 Completes mural depicting the “Modern Woman” for Woman’s Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago
1895 First solo-exhibition in the United States and mother dies
1898 First visit to Unites States in over 20 years
1901 Travels with Henry O. and Louisine Havemeyer on a collecting trip throughout Europe
1904 Named Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in France
1906 Burns early work
1908 Makes last visit to the United States
1910-11 Travels to Egypt
1914 Contracts cataracts and undergoes many unsuccessful surgeries over the next few years
1915 Participates in the Suffrage Loan Exhibition of Old Masters and Works by Edgar Degas and Mary Cassatt
1917 Degas dies
1926 Dies on June 14 at Mesnil-Beaufresne

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Adelson, Warren. Mary Cassatt: An American Observer. New York: Coe Kerr Gallery, 1984.
2. Clement, Russell T., et al. The Women Impressionists: A Sourcebook. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000.
3. Craze, Sophia. Mary Cassatt. North Dighton, MA: World Publications Group, 2003.
4. Hale, Nancy. Mary Cassatt: A Biography of the Great American Painter. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1975.
5. Mathews, Nancy Mowll. Mary Cassatt. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987.
6. Mathews, Nancy Mowll. Mary Cassatt: A Life. New York: Villard Books, 1994.
7. Mathews, Nancy Mowll ed. Cassatt and Her Circle: Selected Letters. New York: Abbeville Press, 1984.
8. Mathews, Nancy Mowll ed. Cassatt: A Retrospective. New York: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates Inc., 1996.
9. Pollock, Griselda. Mary Cassatt: Painter of Modern Women. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1998.
10. Roudebush, Jay. Mary Cassatt. New York: Crown Publishers. Inc., 1979.
11. Sweet, Frederick A. Miss Mary Cassatt. Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966.