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Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) |
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The
life & work of American Impressionist and feminist Mary Cassatt.
click on image for
detailed view
Woman in Black
(Femme en Noir)
c. 1882
Oil on Canvas
Scan courtesy of
Mark Harden
www.artchive.com
Mary Cassatt was an American painter who spent most of her
artistic career living in Paris as an important member of the Impressionist movement. She
was also responsible for bringing Impressionism to the American public, although true
appreciation of her talent wasn't recognized until after her death.
She was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania and studied at
the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. In 1866, she left her studies to
paint in France.her work attracted the attention of Edgar
Degas, who invited her to
exhibit with the Impressionists. The first painting she exhibited, with this group, was "One Cup of Tea"
(1879), a portrait of her sister Lydia -- now in the collection of the Metropolitan
Museum, New York.
Mothers, children, and domestic settings were the themes of the majority
of Cassatt's paintings. Influenced by Degas and her study of Japanese woodcuts, her work,
after 1882, emphasized line over mass and she experimented with asymmetric
compositions, as demonstrated in "The Boating Party" (1893), National
Gallery of Art, Washington.
In 1904, she received France's Legion of Honor for her
contributions to the French arts culture. By 1914, she had lost her sight and was no
longer able to paint.
