Mary Cassatt
American painter and printmaker who befriended Degas and exhibited with the Impressionists.
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She was the only American officially associated with the Impressionists and exhibited in half of their later exhibitions.[1] Gustave Geffroy described her as one of "les trois grandes dames" of Impressionism.[2] Mary Stevenson Cassatt, an American painter and printmaker, was born on May 22, 1844 and died on June 14, 1926.[3]
Quick Facts
- Birth name
- Mary Stevenson Cassatt
- Born
- 22 May 1844
- Birthplace
- Allegheny, Pennsylvania, US
- Died
- 14 June 1926
- Place of death
- near Paris, France
- Known for
- Painting, Printmaking
- Education
- Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Jean-Léon Gérôme
- Charles Chaplin
- Thomas Couture
- Movement
- Impressionism
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
Cassatt was born into an upper-middle-class family in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, now part of Pittsburgh.[4] Her father was a successful stockbroker and land speculator, and her mother came from a banking family.[3] She was invited by Edgar Degas to exhibit with the Impressionists in 1877.[5] She never married, viewing marriage as incompatible with a serious artistic career.[6]
She died in France in 1926.[7] At age fifteen, Cassatt started her art studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia.[3] In 1866, she relocated to Paris and studied privately with Jean-Léon Gérôme; two years later, in 1868, she also took lessons from Thomas Couture.[8][3] The Paris Salon's selection jury accepted Cassatt's painting A Mandoline Player for the first time in 1868.[9]
What the cited sources add
A Harvard Crimson article states that Cassatt's work uniquely centers women and domesticity in subjects frequently neglected by male artists.[6] The same source reports that Cassatt viewed marriage as utterly incompatible with a serious artistic career.[6] The Harvard Crimson article notes that the 1890s were Cassatt's most prolific time.[6] According to the biography on marycassatt.org, Cassatt frequently depicted women's social and private lives, with a special focus on the close relationships between mothers and their children.[3]
An article from a public library system states that Cassatt consistently supported women and advocated for equality throughout her life.[7] The marycassatt.org biography reports that Cassatt's father required her to pay for her studio and supplies from her own sales, which remained low.[3]
References
- Wikipedia, "Mary Cassatt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Weinberg, "Mary Stevenson Cassatt (1844–1926) Essay The Metropolitan Museum of Art Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History", The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, October 2004 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Mary Cassatt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Geffroy, "Histoire de l'Impressionnisme", La Vie Artistique, 1894, p. 268; Moffett, "The New Painting: Impressionism 1874–1886", The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1986, p. 276; Davies, "Breathtaking: Mary Cassatt at Work, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, reviewed", The Spectator, June 5, 2024 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "Mary Cassatt - The Complete Works - Biography - marycassatt.org", www.marycassatt.org. facts only, no text reused. marycassatt.org
- Wikipedia, "Mary Cassatt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Roberts, "The American Collections", Columbus Museum of Art, 1988, p. 36; Pollock 1998, p. 280 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Mary Cassatt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Mathews 1998, p. 3 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "Mary Cassatt: Impressions of the World Away from Men Arts The Harvard Crimson", www.thecrimson.com. facts only, no text reused. thecrimson.com
- "Revolutionary Women in Art History: Mary Cassatt", www.halifaxpubliclibraries.ca, August 10, 2020. facts only, no text reused. halifaxpubliclibraries.ca
- Wikipedia, "Mary Cassatt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Mathews 1994, p. 18; Mathews 1994, p. 18 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Mary Cassatt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Rubinstein, "American women artists: from early Indian times to the present", Hall, 1982; Mathews 1998, p. 3; Mathews 1998, p. 3 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Mary Cassatt (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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