Mary was born in Pittsburgh. Her father was a banker of liberal educational ideas and the entire family appears to have been sympathetic to French culture. Mary was no more than five or six years old when she first saw Paris, and she was still in her teens when she decided to become a painter. She went to Italy, on to Antwerp, then to Rome, andfinally returned to Paris where in 1874, she permanently settled.
In 1872, Cassatt sent her first work to the Salon, others followed in the succeeding years until 1875, when a portrait of her sister was rejected. She divined that the jury had not been satisfied with the background, so she re-painted it several times until, in the next Salon, the same portrait was accepted. At this moment Degas asked her to exhibit with him and his friends, the Impressionist Group, then rising into view, and she accepted with joy. She admired Manet, Courbet and Degas, and hated conventional art.
Cassatt’s biographer stressed the intellectuality and sentiment apparent in her work, as well as the emotion and distinction with which she has painted her favourite models: babies and their mothers. He then speaks of her predominant interest in draughtsmanship and her gift for linear pattern, a gift greatly strengthened by her study of Japanese art and her emulation of its style in the colour prints she made. While her style may partake of the style of others, her draughtsmanship, her composition, her light, and her colour are, indeed, her own. There are qualities of tenderness in her work which could have been put there, perhaps, only by a woman. The qualities which make her work of lasting value are those put there by an outstanding painter.
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Nathalia Brodskaïa
Cassatt
“I have touched with a sense of art some people – they felt the love and the life. Can you offer me anything to compare to that joy for an artist?”
© Parkstone Press International, New York, USA
© Confidential Concepts, worldwide, USA
Biography
Photograph of Mary Cassatt
1844: Birth of Mary Stevenson Cassatt near Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. She is a daughter of a wealthy businessman. Before she is 10 years old, she visits numerous European capitals.
1851: She lives with her parents in Paris, and the following year she lives in Berlin.
1855: Her family goes back to the U. S. A
1860–65: Mary Cassatt studies at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts despite her parents’ objections.
1866: She goes back to Paris where she copies old masters in museums, especially in the Louvre. Jean-Léon Gérôme accepts her as a student.
1868: She visits Barbizon and is very eager to study its style.
1869: She is rejected by the Salon of Academic Art along with Cézanne, Monet and Sisley. Bazille, Degas, Pissarro and Renoir each have one work accepted.
1871–72: She lives with her mother in Rome, as do many American artists at this time, and travels throughout Europe: Italy, Spain, France etc.
1873–74: Creation of Salon des refusés. One of her paintings,
1874: Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Printmakers, etc. exhibition, which is the first Impressionism show, takes place in Nadar’s studio, 35 boulevard des Capucines. Cassatt, abroad, misses this event.
1877: Degas invites her to exhibit with the Impressionists. She also advises Louisine Havemeyer in buying Degas and other impressionists’ paintings.
1878: Cassatt and Pissarro have a consistent correspondence indicating that they have a long friendship and professional collaboration. Cassatt admires Pissarro’s work.
1879: Her work hangs in the Impressionism show. She begins a long friendship with Berthe Morisot and is very close to Degas. The latter asks Cassatt, Pissarro and Bracquemond to contribute to Le Jour et la Nuit. She remains an active Impressionism member until 1886 and buys several impressionist paintings especially for her brother, Alexander.
1882: Her sister Lydia dies.
1886: Her style evolves and she no longer identifies herself with any movement.
1890: She exhibits series of dry-points and aquatints and pastels in Durand-Ruel exhibition. She is strongly influenced by Japonese printmaking.
1890–1900: She is very active as an adviser to numerous art collectors.
1904: She receives the
1926: She dies blind near Paris at the age of 82 years.
When she arrived in Paris in 1866, Mary Cassatt was twenty-two years old and she was one of many young Americans who had chosen to study in Paris. They arrived, painted in numerous Parisian academies and free studios, and met one another in the same “American” cafes, those little islands of homeland in foreign France where one spoke either English or terribly-accented French. After a while, they all returned home to become famous in their hometowns, or, at most, in their states. Mary, however, was the exception; she did not go back to America. Not only did she stay in France until the end of her life, but she also devoted herself to Impressionism in defiance of the contemporary artistic conventions.
Bacchante
1872
Oil on canvas, 62 × 50.7 cm
Museum of American Art of the Pennsylvania
Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Even among Impressionists, however, she was considered “strange,” and she remained for them “a foreign impressionist”. Mary never painted a single landscape, although it was precisely in landscape that the genre had originated, matured, and was expressed most vividly. Cassatt limited her work to only one intimate genre – depictions of women and children. Nevertheless, she was devoted to Impressionism such as she saw it in the work of Degas, her friend and mentor. She considered it an honour to exhibit her work together with that of Monet, Degas, Renoir, Sisley, Pissarro, and Berthe Morisot.
During Carnival
1872
Oil on canvas, 63.5 × 54.6 cm
Private Collection
Mary fitted into this group quite naturally. She was not afraid of Paris’s merciless, poisonous criticism, or the questionable privilege of being one of the rejects, even though before she joined the Impressionists her work had already been accepted by the Salon. She was incredibly gifted and unbelievably hardworking, and her French colleagues acknowledged this without fail. Mary Cassatt found her place among the best artists of her generation. She worked masterfully in oil and pastel, as well as the difficult and laborious graphic techniques. Her independence inspired respect. Only muchlater, however, at the end of the twentieth century, was it recognised that Cassatt had accomplished the goal of future generations of artists.
Offering the Panal to the Bullfighter
1872–73
Oil on canvas, 100.6 × 85.1 cm
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts
In fact, she had become the first artist of the School of Paris, which was formed at the beginning of the twentieth century. When young artists from Russia, Italy, Poland, Spain and Mexico began flocking to Paris, when Russian and American collectors became the first to purchase the new, shocking works of art, and when the literature of future American writers of renown was being born in the cafés of Montmartre and Montparnasse, the life of the blind artist Mary Cassatt was coming to an end at Château de Beaufresne in Mesnil-Théribus (Oise).
On a Balcony
1873
Oil on canvas, 101 × 54.6 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The enigma of Mary Cassatt began at her very birth. Some biographers regard 1845 as the year of her birth, and her tombstone in Le Mesnil-Théribus indicates May 24th 1845. However, it is probably best to trust family archives and parish records, which record her birthday as May 22nd 1844. She was born in the United States, in Allegheny, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As she proudly told her biographer at the end of her life: “I am an American,” she said, “downright American… My mother is also an American, a daughter of Americans. Her family was of Scottish origin, who emigrated to America around 1700.
Spanish Dancer Wearing a Lace Mantilla
1873
Oil on canvas, 65 × 49.5 cm
The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D. C.
Therefore our family has been established in Pennsylvania for a long time and particularly in Pittsburgh where I was born.” There was pride in the artist’s words. She was always proud of her native Pittsburgh, a steel town destined to become one of the most prosperous cities in the United States. Her ancestors were among those who settled this land beginning in the 1700’s, and they had many great achievements. Mary’s father, Robert Simpson Cassatt (1806–1891) was a banker, although, according to her own words, he “did not have the heart of a businessman at all.”
After the Bullfight
1873
Oil on canvas, 82 × 64 cm
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
He devoted much energy to the upbringing of his children, and was successful in this as well, judging by their outstanding achievements. Mary was the fourth of his five children. Her older brother, Alexander Johnston Cassatt (1839–1906), carried on the family trade, and became president of the Pennsylvania Railroad. He was at the same time one of the main constructors of the New York Railroad and it was he who chose and implemented the plan for Central Station, which is considered to be an architectural masterpiece. As a businessman, he possessed the taste and the sophistication of a true artist. For many years, his reputation in America eclipsed the fame his sister had gained in art.
The Young Bride
1875
Oil on canvas, 87.6 × 69.9 cm
Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey.
Perhaps the fact that her father “was full of French ideas”, according to Mary, played a special role in his children’s upbringing. That is where one more secret of the Cassatt family is revealed. It so happens that Mary’s father’s ancestors brought French blood into the family. “‘My family is of French origin, Mary related, ‘‘Well before the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes – exactly in 1662 – a Frenchman named Cossart emigrated from France to Holland.” This Cossart settled in Leyde, where many documents regarding his family are found among the records of the Walloon Church. He later moved to Amsterdam before going to settle in the United States.
Mrs Duffee Seated on a Striped Sofa, Reading
1876
Oil on panel, 35 × 27 cm
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
And, naturally, it was not by accident that Cossart chose New Amsterdam as his new home in that distant land. The name of this city was the thread connecting him with Europe. His grandson settled in Pennsylvania, where the family, now known as Cassatt, remained for good. Mary’s father was the great-grandson of this first Pennsylvanian. However, it was not the father but the mother, Katherine Kelso Johnston (1816–1895), who nourished the yearning for the faraway, still unknown, but thrilling France in the family. The children once found in their home a letter written in flawless French by their mother at the age of twelve.
Portrait of Madame X Dressed for the Matinée
1878
Oil on canvas, 100 × 81 cm
Collection of Philip and Charles Hanes
Mary had good reason to claim that “…my mother was of French culture,” even though up to that point she had not yet travelled abroad. “She was partly looked after by an American lady who once lived in the boarding school of Madame Campan, an institution where there was a fairly large number of young women coming from imperial aristocracy,” Mary related, “Circumstances brought this lady to Pittsburgh, where she accepted several pupils. From her my mother learned to speak perfect French and all of her life she continued corresponding in French with those of her friends who spoke this language. She was extremely knowledgeable about general culture and literature.”
Portrait of the Artist
1878
Gouache on paper, 59.7 × 44.5 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
It was completely natural for this family to use any excuse for a trip to France. “The most distant of my memories is being a five or six-year-old girl, learning how to read in Paris,” Mary remembered. Her parents first took her overseas in 1851 when they needed medical consultation regarding the illness of one of the children. The family remained in Europe for about five years. They not only lived in Paris, but also managed to visit other European countries. It is known, for example, that they visited Heidelberg and Darmstadt in Germany. For a child, five years is a very long time. Mary wrote and spoke in French, was immersed in a French environment, and had many unforgettable experiences.
Children in the Garden
1878
Oil on canvas, 73.6 × 92.6 cm
Collection of Mr and Mrs Meredith J. Long
When the twelve-year-old girl returned home, she was no longer a naive, wide-eyed young American, and, possibly, her dreams about the future already involved France. In 1851, before leaving for Europe, the family moved from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, where the children had many more educational opportunities. In 1858, fourteen-year-old Mary entered the Pennsylvania Academy of Art, which she attended for five years. Later she was able to appreciate what the school had taught her: “At the Pennsylvania Academy, we drew imitations of ancient art and antique statues,” Mary recalled.
Little Girl in a Blue Armchair
1878
Oil on canvas, 89.5 × 129.8 cm
The National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C.
The schooling was probably limited to those first lessons offered by any art school. Mary was mature enough to realise the necessity of taking lessons from real professionals. In her opinion, “there was no education” at the Pennsylvania Academy. Indeed, in mid-nineteenth-century America, opportunities for artistic education were limited. In 1899, R. Mutter, one of the most renowned art historians of the nineteenth century, wrote that “until the United States declared independence (in 1776), America had neither painting nor sculpture. People ate and drank, built houses and reproduced. A piece of iron had more value than the best of statues, a yard of good fabric was preferred to Raphael’s
Woman Reading
1878
Oil on canvas, 78.7 × 58.9 cm
Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska
In the United States, it was impossible to get acquainted with the paintings of old European masters since there were no collections there yet. Some of the settlers brought family portraits with them from Europe, but nothing more. “Moreover,” continues Mutter, “Quakers denounced art, considering it worldly vanity. Only with time, when the dollar grew strong, did enterprising European portrait artists, who did not find luck at home, begin to appear in America.
In the Loge, at the Opera
1878
Oil on canvas, 81.2 × 66 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
They crossed the ocean to grace the New World with their dubious works of art. “ Young Americans were keenly aware that America was lagging behind the millennia-old European artistic tradition. Historians analysing the development of American art admit that in the nineteenth century it lacked the most important component: the classical background, the roots without which the most avant-garde artistic movements would never have developed. In 1864, art critic James Jackson Jarves wrote in the journal
Woman Standing, Holding a Fan
1878–79
Distemper with metallic paint on canvas, 128.6 × 72 cm
Private Collection
Woman with a Pearl Necklace in a Loge
1879
Oil on canvas, 81.3 × 59.7 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
This weakness of American culture gradually became more and more evident. The question of how to make up for this absence arose. “We buy, borrow, adopt and adapt,” wrote Jarves, “For some time to come, Europe must do for us all what we are in too much of a hurry to do ourselves. It remains, then, for us to be as eclectic in our art as in the rest of our civilisations.” Dozens of young Americans – for the most part men – went to England or Germany, but, naturally, most of them preferred Paris.
On the Balcony
1878–79
Oil on canvas, 89.9 × 65.2 cm
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
In the mid-nineteenth century, many professors at the
At the Theatre
1878–79
Pastel and gouache with metallic paint on tan wove paper, 64.6 × 54.5 cm
Private Collection
“A little before the war, so to speak around 1868, I decided to become a painter,” she remembered later, “at the same time I decided to go to Europe.” The choice of the European country where she would continue her studies was obvious. “Around 1868 my mother and I returned to Paris and stayed there for over a year.” First of all, Mary wanted to get to know France better. The diversity of the landscape and the country’s always unexpected beauty was stunning, even to its own artists. It is hard to determine the degree of Mary’s interest in landscape – she later showed no interest in it.
The Cup of Tea
1879
Oil on canvas, 92.4 × 65.4 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
However, at the beginning of her artistic journey she needed to master everything French art had to offer. Already in the 1830’s, there was a group of landscape painters who were devoting their lives to exalting the beauty and distinctive character of the French countryside. Having begun in the vicinity of Paris, in the famous Fontainebleau Forest, the “Barbizon” artists painted the fishing villages of Normandy, the woods and hills along the banks of the Seine, and the rocky shores of Brittany. By the time of Mary’s arrival in France, the best masters of French landscape – Theodore Rousseau, Jules Dupré, Narcisse Diaz, Charles-François Daubigny, Camille Corot – were not only already well-known, but had also earned an important place at the Paris Salon, and some had even joined the jury.
Lydia Leaning on Her Arms Seated in a Loge
1879
Pastel, 53.3 × 43.2 cm
The Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri
Future Impressionists were beginning to search for a new path precisely in this genre. It is hard to imagine that the young American was not at all interested in landscape. She travelled in France for some time and then returned to the United States. America was in the midst of the Civil War at the time. Mary spent two years in Philadelphia and Chicago and then went to Europe again. The years of studying in Philadelphia had been in vain, and Mary came to a sad conclusion: “I believe that you cannot learn painting, and that you do not need to follow the instructions of a teacher. The education of museums alone suffices.” She had visited some of the European museums as a young girl. But which one to choose? Despite all of the beauty of France, there was a country in Europe where all the artists, including the French, were searching for the roots of European art. Only in Italy did they find the authentic classical art whose effect on realism became especially evident in the works of Winkelman. Medieval Italian frescos taught them to understand the harmony of colours.
A Corner of the Loge
1879
Oil on canvas, 43.8 × 62.2 cm
Private Collection
At the Theatre
1879
Pastel on metallic paint on canvas, 65.1 × 81.3 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The great masters of Italian Renaissance were role models for all artists, regardless of their artistic orientation. So Mary took the path everyone else had walked before. She began in Italy. “So I left for Italy and stayed in Parma for eight months, where I entered the school of Correggio, an extraordinary master!” Mary followed in the steps of her older French contemporaries, choosing old masters. “All of his charm,” Eugene Delacroix wrote of Correggio, “all his power and achievement of a genius, came from his imagination in order to awaken an echo in the imaginations created to understand it.”
Interior Scene
1879
Softground etching, aquatint and drypoint on cream laid paper, 39.7 × 31 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C.
When Mary went to Parma in 1872, she was twenty-eight years old. She spent eight months there. “From there I left for Spain,” Mary related, “The works of Rubens at Museo Del Prado inspired in me such admiration that I hurried from Madrid to Antwerp.” It is not a bit surprising that Rubens fascinated her. In Madrid, Rome, and Antwerp, the city of Rubens, where his house still stands, Mary studied this great native of Flanders, whose art became a starting point for her French contemporaries. Delacroix called him “the most brilliant of painters”. When Mary was studying the works of a master, she did so thoughtfully and consistently.
A Woman and a Girl Driving
1881
Oil on canvas, 89.7 × 130.5 cm
The W. P. Wilstach Collection, Philadelphia Art Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
“I stayed there all summer long studying Rubens,” the artist related, “It was from Rome that I returned to Paris in 1874 in order to settle there permanently”. In April 1874, at 35 boulevard des Capucines, the first exhibition of the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Printmakers, etc. took place. At that exhibition, Louis Le Roy, a critic from
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