^
— Mary Stevenson Cassatt was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania,
US, into a well-to-do family. Her father, Robert Cassatt, was a successful
stockbroker and financier. Her mother, Katherine Kelso Johnston, came from
a banking family, which had provided her with a good education. The Cassatt
family was of French Huguenot origin; they escaped persecutions and came
to New York in 1662.
During the childhood of the future artist,
the family traveled in Europe, lived in France and Germany (1851-1855).
During her 4-year stay in Europe Mary became fluent in French and German.
Returning to Pennsylvania in 1855, the Cassatt family settled in Philadelphia.
At the age of 15 Mary decided to become an artist and enrolled in 1861 at
the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. She took art
classes for 4 years (1861-1865) and continued to pursue studies on her own.
Soon she got frustrated with the education in the US. She felt she needed
to study in Europe, her choice was Paris. Her mother supported her daughter’s
desire. Since the Ecole des Beaux-Arts did not admit women, she (in 1866)
studied for a short period in the studio of Charles Chaplin, then took private
lessons from Jean-Léon Gérôme. In addition, Cassatt registered among the
copyists at the Louvre. In 1868 her painting was exhibited for the 1st time
in the Salon. The most important influence on Cassatt in the years before
1875 was exercised by Edouard
Manet, although he did not accept students, she saw his works and they
were much discussed both by painters and art critics.
The Franco-Prussian war (1870) made Cassatt
return to the US for the next year and a half. The US atmosphere was so
discouraging that she almost gave up painting. Late in 1871 she was on her
way back to Europe, setting in Parma, where she copied works by Correggio for
the archbishop of Pittsburgh. In Parma she spent 8 happy months.
In late September of 1872 she went to Spain studying
first the paintings of Velázquez, Murillo, Titian, and Rubens at the Prado,
then continuing on to Seville, where she began to paint her first major
body of works based on Spanish subjects: Spanish Dancer Wearing
a Lace Mantilla, Toreador and
others.
After a brief return to Paris in April of 1873,
she visited Holland and Belgium, and then traveled back south to Rome. In
1874 Cassatt finally decided to settle in Paris. Aided by her elder sister,
Lydia, who joined Mary in Europe, she took an apartment and studio.
Lydia was not only the elder sister, but
also the closest friend and model of Mary. There are eleven known works
with Lydia, among them are The Cup of Tea,
Lydia Working at a Tapestry
Loom, Lydia Crocheting in
the Garden at Marly, Woman and Child Driving.
Lydia died at the end of 1882 of Bright’s disease, and it was a severe blow
to Mary.
Cassatt became known as a portrait painter and
was sought after by American visitors to France: Portrait of an Elderly
Lady. As the sitters are often known, many of Cassatt’s works can
be considered portraits: Mary Ellison Embroidering,
Reading Le Figaro..
Her work differed from the stiff academic tradition of portrait painting
as a mere likeness insofar as most of her subjects were either engaged in
some kind of activity or caught in a casual pose.
In 1877 Cassatt met Degas,
who advised her to join the Impressionists. “I accepted with joy. Now I
could work with absolute independence without considering the opinion of
a jury. I had already recognized who were my true masters. I admired Manet,
Courbet, and Degas. I took leave of conventional art. I began to live.”
A close friendship with Degas began, which lasted until Degas’ death in
1917. Degas and Renoir greatly influenced
her style of painting. For a long time Cassatt was even thought of as a
student of Degas. Though their relations were those of two friends, and
the influence was mutual. Once, on seeing some of Mary’s work, Degas said
that he would not have admitted that a woman could draw so well.
In 1877 her parents came to Paris to live with her permanently. Success
of the IV Impressionist Exhibition, and Cassatt’s in particular, made her
father believe at last that the daughter had chosen the right way in life.
Between 1879 and 1882 The Independents, as the Impressionists used to call
themselves, held their group exhibitions annually, thus providing Cassatt
with the opportunity to show her work. In the US she was exhibiting regularly
with the Society of American Artists in New York.
The two decades around the turn of the century
proved to be a highly successful and productive period for Cassatt. She
focused almost exclusively on the depiction of mothers and children, these
works today are her best-known and most popular, e.g. The
Child's Caress., The Bath. Almost
all of Cassatt’s mother and child scenes do not depict actual mothers with
their own children, since the artist preferred to select his models and
match the appropriate physical types in order to achieve the desired results.
From 1890 she also produced prints, e.g. The Letter,
In the Omnibus,
etc. Cassatt’s father died in 1891, and the mother in 1895.
In 1898 Mary returned to the US for the 1st time in over
25 years, visiting relatives, friends and collectors. In 1901 she visited
Italy and Spain, in 1908 made the last trip to the USA. In 1910-12 she traveled
extensively in Europe and in the Middle East. In 1904 she was accepted into
the Legion of Honour and in 1910 became a member of the National Academy
of Design in New York.
Cassatt’s last years were overshadowed with
the loss of close people, relatives and friends. She suffered from many
diseases, like diabetes and had cataracts on both eyes, which eventually
reduced her to near blindness. She lived in solitude at the Château de Beaufresne,
accompanied only by her longtime housekeeper, Mathilde Valet, or in the
south of France. At the outbreak of WWI Cassatt had to give up painting
entirely.
Cassatt’s name is less familiar than those of her
fellow Impressionist painters Degas, Monet or Renoir. However,
Mary Cassatt is highly original and interesting painter and her talent does
not yield to those with well-known names.
— LINKS
— Self-Portrait
(1878, 60x45cm; 1100x757pix, 180 kb)
— Self-Portrait
(1880; 956x679pix, 115kb)
— Children
Playing with a Cat (1908, 84x104cm; _ ZOOM to 1698x2094pix, 731kb, by
clicking on “VIEW
high-resolution image in browser)
— The
Caress (1902, 83x69cm; _ ZOOM to 2017x1566pix, 542kb, as above)
— Jules
Being Dried by His Mother (190093x73cm; _ ZOOM to 2652x2025pix, as above)
— Girl
Arranging Her Hair (1886, 75x62cm; _ ZOOM to 2511x2027pix, 1024kb, as
above)
— Lydia
Seated at an Embroidery Frame (1881; 65x93cm; _ ZOOM to 1403x2067pix,
668kb, as above)
— Hélène
de Septeuil (1889, 64x41cm; _ ZOOM as above) holding her young son.
— Lady
at the Tea Table (1883, 86x74cm; _ ZOOM as above)
— Maternal
Kiss (1896, 56x46cm; _ ZOOM to 2614x2064pix, 1138kb, as above)
— Elsie
in a Blue Chair (1880, 89x64cm; _ ZOOM as above)
— Moise
Dreyfus (1879, 81x65cm; _ ZOOM as above)
— At
the Window (1889, 30x25cm; _ ZOOM to 2000x1557pix, 824kb, as above)
— Mrs.
Robert S. Cassatt, the Artist's Mother (Katherine Kelso Johnston Cassatt)
(1889, 97x69cm; 1/3 size, 143kb _ ZOOM
to 2/3 size, 599kb)
— Sara
Holding a Cat (1908, 41x33cm)
— At
the Français, a Sketch aka At the Opera (1878; 600x484pix
_ ZOOM
to 1045x805pix, 148kb _ ZOOM+
to 1400x1129pix)
— Study
of a Woman With a Fan (Miss Mary Ellison) (1880; 600x456pix _ ZOOM
to 1400x1064pix)
— A
Little Girl (1878; 600x888pix _ ZOOM
to 1400x2072pix) _ sprawled on a blue stuffed armchair, with a little dog
lying on a similar armchair, and a matching armchair and sofa in the background.
— Lady
Knitting (1882; 600x428pix _ ZOOM
to 1400x999pix)
— Drinking
Tea (1880; 881x1239pix, 1920kb _ ZOOM
to 1489x2118pix, 740kb)
— Two
Young Ladies in a Loge (1882; 600x476pix _ ZOOM
to 1400x1111pix)
— Lady
at the Tea Table (1885; 600x500pix _ ZOOM
to 1400x1167pix)
— The
Boating Party (1894; 600x784pix _ ZOOM
to 1400x1829pix)
— After
the Bath (1904; 600x940pix _ ZOOM
to 1400x2193pix)
— Woman
Bathing (La Toilette) (1891, 37x27cm; half~size)
— Head
of a Woman (1885, 43x39cm; 1/3 size _ ZOOM
to 2/3 size)
— The
Crochet Lesson (1913; 946x802pix, 172kb)
— Toreador
(1873; 1103x857pix, 195 kb)
— Mrs. Cassatt
Reading to her Grandchildren (1880; 596x1111pix, 166kb)
— Woman
and Child Driving (1881; 600x872pix, 231kb _ ZOOM
to 780x1123pix, 197kb _ ZOOM+
to 1400x2035pix) _ Actually only the woman is driving the 1-HP vehicle through
a park, while the bored 4-year-old (her grand-daughter?) is just sitting
next to her; and, in the backward-facing back seat, there is a young man
wearing a top hat.
— Robert
and His Sailboat (1882; 1040x792pix, 199kb)
— Master
Robert Kelso Cassatt (1882; 884x1111pix, 277kb) — The fingers
of his right hand seem deformed.
— 271
images at the Athenaeum
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