Cassatt and artworks

Nathalia Brodskaïa

• Publisher: Parkstone International
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN: 9781781608449
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art General

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, and finally 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.

Table of contents

• Biography
• Bacchante
• Little Girl in a Blue Armchair
• Portrait of Alexander J. Cassatt
• Little Girl in a Big Straw Hat and Pinafore
• Rest
• Reflection
• The Lesson
• Mother Holding a Child in Her Arms
• Young Woman Sewing
• Young Woman Trying on a Dress
• Nude Child
• The Mirror
• The Parrot
• The Coiffure
• Baby’s First Caress
• In the Omnibus
• Woman Bathing
• Afternoon Tea Party
• The Bath
• The Lamp
• The Letter
• Mother’s Kiss
• Woman with a Red Zinnia
• Young Woman picking Fruit
• Contemplation
• The Bath
• Child Picking a Fruit
• The Kitchen Garden
• In the Garden
• The Banjo lesson
• The Banjo Lesson
• Summertime
• Summertime
• In the Park
• The Boating Party
• Feeding the Ducks
• Young Mother in a Park in front of a Pond
• Ellen Mary Cassatt in a White Coat
• Maternal Caress
• Child with Bare Feet
• On the Grass
• Breakfast in Bed
• The Cup of Tea
• Mother Feeding Her Child
• Young Mother Nursing Her Child
• Mother and Child
• Baby Charles Looking Over His Mother’s Shoulder (No. 3)
• Mother and Child
• Young Mother
• After the Bath
• Baby Getting Up from His Nap
• Sara in a Green Bonnet
• Woman in a Raspberry Costume
• Margot Leaning against Her Mother
• The Caress
• Margot Embracing Her Mother
• Reine Lefebvre Holding a Nude Baby
• Margot in Blue
• Simone and Her Mother in a Garden
• Mother and Child
• Woman and Child Admiring a Baby
• Girl in Green
• Mother and Child
• Mother Nursing her Baby
• Young Mother and Two Children
• Mother and Child in a Boat
• Woman at Her Toilette