American in Paris, Mary Cassatt (1844–1926) is one of the rare women artists and Berthe Morisot to embrace the Impressionist adventure. Her favorite subjects are maternity hospitals, showing a tender bond between mother and child. Painter and a talented etcher, this great friend of Edgar Degas, also promoted Impressionism between France and the United States.
She said
“A woman artist must be able to make primary sacrifices. "
Her life
Born into an American family of French origin, Mary Cassatt grew up in a Francophile environment. Her youth was spent between the United States and France, where she pursued art studies in parallel with an apprenticeship at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Therefore, her artistic culture was important when she settled permanently in Paris after the Commune in 1871. In Paris, she copies the masterpieces of the Louvre. She also travels to Europe to discover the great museums (The Uffizi in Florence, The Prado in Madrid…).
Mary Cassatt binds with Edgar Degas, an artist she admires at the highest point. Degas's art is more classic, in the tradition of Manet, but he opened the doors to impressionist exhibitions from 1879. It was an opportunity for her to get closer to other painters, such as Pissarro and Berthe Morisot, the other great lady of the movement.
At the beginning of the 1880s, Cassatt found his favorite theme : motherhood. It is not easy to determine what the subject of the painter is. Is it the mother? Is it the intimate duo, united by tenderness? Cassatt was never married, and she had no children, but she knew how to translate the sweetness between the two beings, often represented in daily activities like the toilet. No doubt, on the other hand, about Cassatt's plastic choices, which frankly inscribe her in the impressionist spirit:
Her vibrant palette.
Her removed touch.
The role of light.
The taste for Japanese prints.
Mary Cassatt plays the role of guide promoter, encouraging American amateurs, particularly the Havemeyer couple, to acquire Impressionist works. The movement struggled to be recognized in France, despite the efforts of merchant Paul Durand-Ruel. She brought him his assistance precisely when he undertook in 1883 to open a gallery in the United States to sell Impressionist works there.
In the 1890s, Cassatt developed a fascination with Japanese prints. She undertakes significant work in engraving, favoring the intaglio technique. Her artist friends praise her etchings. But Cassatt suffered from serious health problems from the 1910s, which led her to abandon her artistic practice. She became permanently blind in 1921 before dying, five years later, the same year as Claude Monet.
Her key works
Faithful to the world of Manet and Degas, Cassatt painted several theater interiors in the 1870s. Here, she represents her richly adorned sister Lydia in a box. Behind it is a mirror that reflects the room's image, sumptuous and illuminated. It is not the spectacle that interests Cassatt but the feminine portrait, radiant, whose flesh is highlighted by artificial lighting. Many admired this work during the Fourth Impressionist Exhibition in 1879.
This drawing, worked in the delicate pastel technique, represents a tender duo: a mother and her child, entwined, probably after the toilet. Both are dressed in white, which gives them a pure and virginal look. Behind them are a mirror and toiletries. Cassatt privileged subjects touching the female intimacy, which she knew how to capture with tenderness by choosing original moments.
This engraving testifies to the attraction of Mary Cassatt for the esthetics of Japanese prints, very appreciated in the circle of the impressionists. She also visited the great exhibition of prints organized in Paris in 1880 with her friend Degas. Like the Japanese masters, Cassatt favors the finesse of the line, eliminating superfluous details, and privileges moments of daily intimacy such as hairdressing or grooming. A set of ten etchings was exhibited during her first personal exhibition at the Durand-Ruel gallery in 1891.
Seen in Beaux-Arts , Claire Maingon
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