1844–1926 · Impressionism. Wikipedia
Mary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. She was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, but lived most of her adult life in France, where she befriended Edgar Degas and exhibited with the Impressionists. Cassatt often created images of the social and private lives of women, with particular emphasis on the intimate bonds between mothers and children.
The Child's Bath (or The Bath) is an 1893 oil painting by American artist Mary Cassatt. The painting continues her interest in depicting bathing and motherhood, but it is distinct in its angle of vision. Both the subject matter and the overhead perspective were inspired by Japanese Woodcut prints and Edgar Degas. It was bought by the Art Institute of Chicago in 1910, and has since become one of the most popular pieces in the museum.
Woman with a Pearl Necklace in a Loge (or Lydia in a Loge) is an 1879 painting by American artist Mary Cassatt. The Philadelphia Museum of Art acquired the painting in 1978 from the bequest of Charlotte Dorrance Wright. The style in which it was painted and the depiction of shifting light and color was influenced by Impressionism. This painting shows a view of the modern woman and is similar in style to Degas. This oil on canvas painting is 32 x 23 1/2 inches (81.3 x 59.7 cm). The painting shows a woman sitting on a large red chair in the balconies of the Paris Opéra House. The figure is seated in front of a massive mirror that is reflecting the theater scene that the woman is experiencing; it is also giving us the view point that the woman is having. As with Degas, Cassatt paid close attention to the "effects of artificial lighting on flesh tones". The woman is sitting enjoying the sights, the city nightlife that most Impressionists were fascinated with, as she people watches. She is dressed up, as with what was expected of going to a theater, with a peach colored dress, makeup, pearls, gloves and hair pinned back.
The American artist Mary Cassatt painted The Cup of Tea in Paris ca. 1879–1881. The painting depicts Mary's sister Lydia Cassatt in a typical, upper class-Parisian ritual of afternoon tea. Scholars have observed that Cassatt's choice to employ vivid colors, loose brushstrokes, and novel perspective to portray the scene makes it a quintessentially Impressionist painting. It is unclear when this painting was first exhibited. The painting is mentioned in Edgar Degas’s preliminary list of works for the Impressionist Exhibition of 1879. However, the post-exhibition catalog did not include The Cup of Tea. It was confirmed to have appeared in the Sixth Impressionist Exhibit of 1881 where it received much praise as well as criticism. The painting was later purchased by a retired American banker and friend of the Cassatt family, James Stillman. Today, the painting is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Little Girl in a Blue Armchair (French: Petite fille dans un fauteuil bleu) is an 1878 oil painting by the American painter, printmaker, pastelist, and connoisseur Mary Cassatt. It is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Edgar Degas made some changes in the painting. The museum page provenance suggests the painting was possibly shown at the Fourth Impressionist Exhibition 1879 as Portrait de petite fille.
Girl Arranging Her Hair is an 1886 painting by American artist Mary Cassatt. The painting currently is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C. It was originally exhibited at the Eighth and last Impressionist exhibition, which opened on May 15, 1886. The painting is a departure from Cassatt's usual style in its increased emphasis on drawing and control. Born from a debate with Edgar Degas, who doubted women's artistic abilities, the painting reflects Cassatt's successful attempt to prove him wrong. Degas, captivated by the piece's blend of classical and contemporary styles, acquired it for his collection. The artwork portrays a young girl preparing for bed, challenging norms by acknowledging her awkwardness and self-consciousness. Cassatt deliberately chose an unconventional subject, experimenting with the simultaneous depiction of ugliness and beauty, a technique acquired from Degas. The painting's mastery lies in Cassatt's adept handling of form, composition, color, and light.
The Boating Party is an oil painting by American artist Mary Cassatt created in 1893. It is also known under the titles La partie en bateau; La barque; Les canotiers; and En canot. Measuring nearly three by four feet, it is one of Cassatt’s largest and most ambitious paintings. It has been in the Chester Dale Collection of the National Gallery of Art since 1963. Cassatt painted The Boating Party during the winter of 1893–1894 in Antibes, on the French Riviera. Cassatt spent January and February 1894 at the Villa "La Cigaronne," in Cap d'Antibes with her mother. The previous year had been a successful one: Cassatt had completed the mural Modern Woman for the Woman's Building at Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, her exhibition in 1893 at Durand-Ruel's gallery had been well received, and the French state had decided to purchase one of her paintings for the Musée du Luxembourg.
Lady at the Tea Table is a late 19th-century painting by American artist Mary Cassatt. The work, done in oil on canvas, is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The painting depicts Mary Dickinson Riddle, Cassatt's mother's first cousin, seated at a table set with a tea service. The tea set was a gift to Cassatt's family from Riddle's daughter. The tea service is gilded blue-and-white porcelain from Canton (modern day Guangzhou) in Qing dynasty China; in the 19th century, Canton was renowned for its exports to the Western world, as the port city was one of the centers of the Old China Trade. Lady itself was painted by Cassatt as a gift for the Riddle family. However, Riddle's daughter disliked the painting, thinking it portrayed her mother's nose as being too big, and thus the painting was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Cassatt in 1923.
Mother and Child (The Oval Mirror) is an oil-on-canvas painting by the American Impressionist artist Mary Cassatt. The painting depicts a mother and her child in front of a mirror. The painting provides a glimpse of the domestic life of a mother and her child, evoking religious iconography from the Italian Renaissance. However, portrayals of a mother and her child are common in Cassatt's work, so it is possible that this similarity is coincidental rather than intentional. It is unclear when exactly Cassatt painted Mother and Child, but it was acquired by dealer Durand-Ruel in 1898. Durand-Ruel sold the painting to the Havemeyers in 1899. The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired the painting in 1929.
Young Mother Sewing aka Little Girl Leaning on her Mother's Knee is a 1900 painting by the American artist Mary Cassatt. It is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mary Cassatt created the oil painting in 1900. It was purchased in Paris from Durand-Ruel by Louisine Havemeyer in 1901. Havemeyer became a widow in 1907 and she devoted her time to the suffrage movement. In 1912 she lent her artistic collection including this painting to Knoedler's Gallery in New York to raise money for the cause. In 1913, she founded what would become the National Woman's Party with the radical suffragist Alice Paul. Havemeyer repeated the money raising art exhibition for women's suffrage at Knoedler's in 1915.
Woman with a Sunflower is a 1905 oil painting by the American artist Mary Cassatt. It has been in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC since 1963. Woman with a Sunflower was among many paintings by Cassatt which were involved in a 1915 exhibition, which raised money for the suffrage campaign. This exhibition took place at the Knoedler Gallery in New York City, Louisine Havemeyer organised this exhibition. The entry fees and the sale of the pamphlets helped Havemeyer found the Woman Suffrage Campaign Fund.
In the Loge, also known as At the Opera, is an 1878 impressionist painting by the American artist Mary Cassatt. The oil-on-canvas painting is currently in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, which also holds a preliminary drawing for the work. The painting displays a bourgeois woman in a loge at the opera house looking through her opera glasses, while a man in the background looks at her. The woman's costume and fan make clear her upper class status. Art historians see the painting as commentary on the role of gender, looking, and power in the social spaces of the nineteenth century. Cassatt's female subjects are often seen as an extension of her personal life. Cassatt had an early passion for painting and convinced her father to allow her to attend art school at a time when it was unusual for women to do so. After her father gave her permission to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, she moved to Paris, where she practiced as a painter and exhibited with the Impressionists. The art historian Susan Yeh has argued that Cassatt's female subjects, like Cassatt herself, overcome gender stereotypes and pursue independence.
Lilacs in a Window is a painting by the American painter, printmaker, pastelist, and connoisseur Mary Cassatt which is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It is one of the few still-lifes she executed and was originally owned by the Parisian art collector Moyse Dreyfus. Cassatt had been introduced to him by her Impressionist friends, and he became a friend and early patron. Cassatt included a portrait of him, Mr. Moyse Dreyfus, in her show at the Fourth Impressionist Exhibition of 1879.