As a noted Impressionist artist, Mary Cassatt, born in 1844, is often considered one of the most famous painters in the history of art.
She is a single American woman who lived in Paris and was able to make a name for herself in the male-dominated movement, challenging XNUMXth-century gender expectations and paving the way for future female artists.
In addition to admiring his canvases, understanding the context of his art is an important aspect of appreciating his role in both Impressionism and Modernism. field of modern art.
Edgar Degas "Picture of Mary Cassatt" c. 1880–1884. Source: My Modern Met | Google Art Project via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
While her best-known pieces were produced when she was an established artist, her desire to become a painter dates back to her childhood.
Since Cassatt's career was largely based on EuropaIt's no surprise that traveling abroad as a child sparked her interest in art.
In the 1850s, Cassatt spent many years in Germany y France, where he learned languages and developed an interest in drawing. After his return to Philadelphia, enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he began to study painting in 1861.
While her parents supported her interest in the arts, they, like many others during this time, did not consider it to be a suitable career for a woman. However, she continued her artistic education until 1865, when she grew tired of the restrictions placed on female students. A year later, she moved to Paris, where his career flourished.
Traditionally, most aspiring artists who lived in Paris they studied at the École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts), however, due to her gender, Cassatt was not allowed to attend, and to make up for this loss, she combined independent study and private classes with Jean-Léon Gérôme, a prominent French painter.
She had always hoped to be selected to exhibit in a traditional salon, but frustrated by a series of salon rejections and dissatisfied with the treatment of female entrants, she abandoned this path and found her place among newcomers at the forefront of Paris, the "Impressionists".
Thus, Cassatt was invited to exhibit with the Impressionists by Edgar Degas, an established artist whose work Cassatt had admired for years.
The Impressionists were connected by a unique approach to painting, characterized by a preference for thick brushstrokes, an interest in everyday subjects, and the habit of painting outdoors or outdoors. While most of the artists associated with the movement, including Claude Monet, Edouard Manet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, were men, the Impressionists accepted and exhibited female artists, including the "virtuous colorist" Berthe Morisot, and of course, from Mary.
Thus, Cassatt began to show his work, and for the rest of his career, he would reject realism and leave the confines of his studio to produce impressionist paintings and pastels.
Cassatt, who died in 1926, developed a recognizable style and approach to subject matter. Stylistically, her art is characterized by luminous color. In addition, while her paintings feature loose and expressive brushstrokes, she used her pastels, inspired by Degas's use of the medium, as a way to experiment with technique and composition.
While her style is celebrated, Cassatt is best known for her choice of subject matter, as most of her art features depictions of mothers and children in quiet, everyday moments between couples.
Like many Impressionists, Cassatt was also linked to the japonism, to the study of Japanese art and, more specifically, to his influence on European works. This influence is most evident in his interest in intimately capturing female subjects (a key feature of Japanese woodblock prints), as well as in the uniformity of color, shape, and perspective found in many of his works. .
Along with several of her contemporaries, Cassatt is seen as one of the pioneers of early modern art. While she is not as well known as other Impressionists, she is today increasingly being studied, exhibited, and recognized for her contributions to art history.