Mark Tolner celebrates artist Mary Cassatt’s Birthday and her art that is now Spanish property
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Mark Tolner writes of travels and worldwide experiences, art and culture.
Mary Stevenson Cassatt (May 22, 1844 - June 14, 1926) was an
American painter and printmaker. She lived much of her adult life in
France, where she first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited
among the Impressionists.
Cassatt (pronounced ca-SAHT) often created images of the social and
private lives of women, with particular emphasis on the intimate bonds
between mothers and children.
Cassatt was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, which is now part
of Pittsburgh. She was born into favorable circumstances: her father,
Robert Simpson Cassat (later Cassatt), was a successful stockbroker and
land speculator, and her mother, Katherine Kelso Johnston, came from a
banking family. The ancestral name had been Cossart. Cassatt was a
distant cousin of artist Robert Henri. Cassatt was one of seven
children, of which two died in infancy. Her family moved eastward,
first to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, then to the Philadelphia area, where
she began schooling at age six.
Cassatt grew up in an environment that viewed travel as integral to
education; she spent five years in Europe and visited many of the
capitals, including London, Paris, and Berlin. She had her first
lessons in drawing and music while abroad and learned German and
French. Her first exposure to French artists Ingres, Delacroix, Corot,
and Courbet was likely at the Paris World’s Fair of 1855. Also
exhibited at the exhibition were Degas and Pissarro, both of whom would
be future colleagues and mentors.
Even though her family objected to her becoming a professional
artist, Cassatt began studying painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of
the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the early age of
fifteen, and continued her studies during the years of the American
Civil War. Part of their concern may have been Cassatt’s exposure to
feminist ideas and the bohemian behavior of some of the male students,
of which one was Thomas Eakins, later the controversial director of the
Academy. About 20% of the students were female. Though most were not
bent on making a career of art, they viewed art as a valid means of
achievement and recognition, and a socially valuable talent. Cassatt,
instead, was determined to become a professional artist. more
Impressionism
Within months of her return to Europe in the autumn of 1871,
Cassatt’s prospects had brightened. Her painting Two Women Throwing
Flowers During Carnival was well received in the Salon of 1872, and was
purchased. She attracted much favorable notice in Parma and was
supported and encouraged by the art community there, “All Parma is
talking of Miss Cassatt and her picture, and everyone is anxious to
know her”.
After completing her commission for the archbishop, Cassatt
traveled to Madrid and Seville, where she painted a group of paintings
of Spanish subjects, including Spanish Dancer Wearing a Lace Mantilla
(1873, in the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian
Institution). In 1874, she made the decision to take up residence in
France. She was joined by her sister Lydia who shared an apartment with
her. Cassatt continued to express criticism of the politics of the
Salon and the conventional taste that prevailed there. She was blunt in
her comments, as reported by Sartain, “she is entirely too slashing,
snubs all modern art, disdains the Salon pictures of Cabanel, Bonnat,
all the names we are used to revere”. Cassatt saw that works by female
artists were often dismissed with contempt unless the artist had a
friend or protector on the jury, and she would not flirt with jurors to
curry favor. Her cynicism grew when one of the two pictures she
submitted in 1875 was refused by the jury, only to be accepted the
following year after she darkened the background. She had quarrels with
Sartain, who thought Cassatt too outspoken and self-centered, and
eventually they parted. Out of her distress and self-criticism, Cassatt
decided that she needed to move away from genre paintings and onto more
fashionable subjects, in order to attract portrait commissions from
American socialites abroad, but that attempt bore little fruit at
first.
In 1877, both her entries were rejected, and for the first time in
seven years she had no works in the Salon. At this low point in her
career she was invited by Edgar Degas to show her works with the
Impressionists, a group that had begun their own series of independent
exhibitions in 1874 with much attendant notoriety. The Impressionists
(also known as the “Independents” or “Intransigents”) had no formal
manifesto and varied considerably in subject matter and technique. They
tended to prefer open air painting and the application of vibrant color
in separate strokes with little pre-mixing, which allows the eye to
merge the results in an “impressionistic” manner. The Impressionists
had been receiving the wrath of the critics for several years. Henry
Bacon, a friend of the Cassatts, thought that the Impressionists were
so radical that they were “afflicted with some hitherto unknown disease
of the eye”. They already had one female member, artist Berthe Morisot,
who became Cassatt’s friend and colleague.
Cassatt admired Degas, whose pastels had made a powerful impression
on her when she encountered them in an art dealer’s window in 1875. “I
used to go and flatten my nose against that window and absorb all I
could of his art,” she later recalled. “It changed my life. I saw art
then as I wanted to see it.” She accepted Degas’ invitation with
enthusiasm, and began preparing paintings for the next Impressionist
show, planned for 1878, which (after a postponement because of the
World’s Fair) took place on April 10, 1879. She felt comfortable with
the Impressionists and joined their cause enthusiastically, “we are
carrying on a despairing fight & need all our forces”. Unable to
attend cafes with them without attracting unfavorable attention, she
met with them privately and at exhibitions. She now hoped for
commercial success selling paintings to the sophisticated Parisians who
preferred the avant-garde. Her style had gained a new spontaneity
during the intervening two years. Previously a studio-bound artist, she
had adopted the practice of carrying a sketchbook with her to record
the scenes she saw, out-of-doors and at the theater.
In 1877, Cassatt was joined in Paris by her father and mother, who
returned with her sister Lydia. Mary valued their companionship, as
neither she nor Lydia had married. Mary had decided early in life that
marriage would be incompatible with her career. Lydia, who was
frequently painted by her sister, suffered from recurrent bouts of
illness, and her death in 1882 left Cassatt temporarily unable to work.
Cassatt’s father insisted that her studio and supplies be covered by
her sales, which were still meager. Afraid of having to paint
“potboilers” (sentimental themes for quick money) to make ends meet,
Cassatt applied herself to produce some quality paintings for the next
Impressionist exhibition. Three of her most accomplished works from
1878 were Portrait of the Artist (self-portrait), Little Girl in a Blue
Armchair, and Reading Le Figaro (portrait of her mother).
Degas had considerable influence on Cassatt. She became extremely
proficient in the use of pastels, eventually creating many of her most
important works in this medium. Degas also introduced her to copper
engraving, of which he was a recognized master, which strengthened her
control of line and overall draftsmanship. She became the subject in
his series of etchings recording their trips to the Louvre. They worked
side-by-side for awhile, and she gained considerably from his technique
and knowledge. She had strong feelings for him but learned not to
expect too much from his fickle and temperamental nature. The
sophisticated and well-dressed Degas, then forty-five, was a welcome
dinner guest at the Cassatt residence.
After completing her commission for the archbishop, Cassatt traveled to
Madrid and Seville, where she painted a group of paintings of Spanish
subjects, including Spanish Dancer Wearing a Lace Mantilla (1873, in
the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution). In 1874,
she made the decision to take up residence in France. She was joined by
her sister Lydia who shared an apartment property with her.
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