A 19th Century wonder woman: Mary Cassett

This month I am discussing a very special woman in art: Mary Cassett. The article follows.

But before I start, I want to tell you about a very resourceful website: I Draw and Paint. It's a community of artists who help each other. It's a place to share, learn and grow. In addition, you can have your own page and blog. And yes, it's free! Here's the link to my page just to give you an example: http://community.how-to-draw-and-paint.com/profile/JillJeffersGoodell. Founded by a wonderful instructor and mentor, Bob Davies, the site also offers his free watercolor e-book and several free videos on how to draw or paint anything--a great resource. Please check it out when you get a chance. Now onto the subject at hand: Mary Cassett.

There seems to be certain periods of time when a group of people are born that are destined to change the world. Such a time was in the 1830s and 1840s. That's when we saw the birth of industrial giants: Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, Gould, while on the other side of the spectrum, future artistic innovators were also taking their first breath: the Impressionists. One of these artists was a girl named Mary Cassatt, born in 1844. She would grow up to be a determined, brilliant artist who eventually knocked the socks off the male-dominated world of art.

Mary Cassatt (ca-SAHT) was born into a family of wealth. While her father didn't mind Mary studying art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, he frowned on her taking up art as a career. This just wasn't done in those days. Gender determined many things then. Mary in fact was having a very difficult time at the Academy because they wouldn't let women use live models, forcing them to draw only from casts. 

After the American Civil War, Mary finally convinces her father to allow her to move to Paris so that she can expand her knowledge and skill in a  more progressive manner. I think her father probably only agrees to this move as she is chaperoned by her mother and friends. Along with spending hours and hours copying the Masters at the Louvre, Mary also studies with Jean-Leon Gérôme, Edouard Frère and Paul Soyer.

But her artistic life changes when she meets and befriends Edgar Degas. As the website, www.marycassatt.org, states:

'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." '

Thematically, Mary Cassatt was most noted for her love of the human form. In 1880, she began drawing and painting her mother, sisters, neices and nephews. And as I've previously stated, she practiced and practiced. Below are some examples of her sketching, along with some completed works. 


I wish I had more time to give to Mary. She was an amazing woman—the only female and  American to exhibit with the Impressionists. More importantly though, Mary also opened many doors for future female artists. She was very brave, and we owe her a lot.

To view more of Mary Cassatt's work please go to  www.marycassatt.org . It's just amazing! Next month, I'll be staying with the Impressionists, with a short essay on Monet. Both Cassatt and Monet lived their latter lives blind. What a cruel ending for such talented people.