Self-portrait, Mary Cassatt

Transcription

1 Self-portrait, 1880 Mary Cassatt

2 Mary Stevenson Cassatt was born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on May 22, Her family was very wealthy and so Mary had a good education and was very well-read. During that time, people considered travel as an important part of education. When she was 7 years old, Mary s family moved to Europe. They lived in Paris, but visited many other big cities like Berlin and London. While living in Europe, she learned German and French. She also studied drawing and music. She had the opportunity to learn about and see art in the many museums in Europe. Camille Pissarro, Conversation, 1881 In 1855, her family visited the Paris World s Fair, a large art show, which featured France s most important artists of the time. Two artists in that exhibition were Edgar Degas and Camille Pissarro. They later influenced her work and became her colleagues and mentors. Edgar Degas, Dancing Class, 1871

3 When the Cassatt family returned to the United States, Mary was fifteen years old. She decided that she wanted to study art. Her family was concerned about letting her study and socialize with the artists. But Mary enrolled in classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. She was a student there from , but she wasn t happy. Female students were not allowed to take all of the same classes as men. The male teachers and students did not treat the female students as equals and she was frustrated. She left the program early and did not receive her degree. Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, circa 1895

4 Mary longed to return to Europe where she could study the art that had inspired her so much just a few years before. Her father only allowed her to go if her mother and sister went as her chaperones. Giuseppe Castiglione, The Salon of the Louvre Museum, 1865 But even in Europe, women were not allowed to study at the prestigious art school, the École des Beaux-Arts. Mary hired the professors to teach her outside of school hours. The Louvre museum offered permits for art students, which gave them permission to come study and copy the art that was on display. These copyists were allowed to study and copy the art that they saw in the museum, with the intent to sell those copied pieces. Mary s father only financially supported her basic needs. He paid for her to have food, clothing and a place to live. But if she wanted to be an artist, she had to be selfsupporting. If she needed any kind of art supplies, she had to pay for them herself. Mary had to sell enough of her art so that she could buy more of her own art supplies.

5 Artists were not allowed to socialize in the same cafes with wealthy people and so they had to network and socialize with each other at the museums. Mary s private lessons with the school s professors and her permit to copy museum pieces gave her the exposure to the art world that she needed to become successful. Diego Velasquez, Old Woman Frying Eggs, 1618 Peter Paul Rubens, Old Woman and Boy with Candles, Antontio da Correggio, St. Catherine Reading, Mary Cassatt studied the older masters at the museum. She especially loved the work by Correggio, Velasquez and Rubens.

6 During her art lessons, Mary Cassatt often travelled to the countryside to draw the people who lived and worked on the land. Unlike many artists who worked in urban studios with posed models, she focused on capturing the peasants going about their daily lives. Her first painting to be accepted for exhibition was The Mandolin Player. It was part of the show at the Paris Salon in 1868, and she was one of only two women who were allowed to exhibit! Although her father did consent to let her go abroad to study art, he was still not happy about her pursuit of a career in art. She exhibited her first painting under the name Mary Stevenson, presumably to not anger him any further. The Mandolin Player, 1868 We can see that the style of her early work looks very much like the paintings she had been studying at the museum!

7 Mary Cassatt felt optimistic about continuing her art career back in the United States. She moved back to Pennsylvania but she struggled to make a name for herself there. She was chosen to exhibit some of her paintings in a New York gallery but no one was purchasing them. Frustrated, she moved to Chicago and tried to work there. After she lost several of her paintings during the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, she considered giving up her dream altogether. Her work was discovered by an archbishop from Pittsburgh and he commissioned her to copy two paintings by Correggio. He even paid for her to travel to Italy to see the original pieces! Mary was so excited to return to Europe. After she completed the paintings that she was hired to make, she travelled through Europe and eventually settled down to live and work in France. Spanish Dancer Wearing a Lace Mantilla, 1873

8 Mary opened her art studio in Paris in Although women were allowed to show their work in exhibitions alongside male artists, they were still not being treated equally. Mary was very frustrated because she submitted many of her paintings to the Paris Salon but they were rejected. Female artists usually had to know one of the jurors (people who chose which pieces were included in an exhibition). One of her paintings was finally accepted after she darkened her background. But, we can see that Mary was changing the way she painted. She was experimenting with showing more brush strokes and brighter colors. Head of a Young Girl, 1874

9 Mary s backgrounds in these paintings are still darker, but the foreground colors are brighter and she is showing some texture as she paints. The Young Bride, 1875 A Musical Party, 1874 The subjects in her paintings were depicted as if she had caught a moment as they went about their normal lives. She focused on realistically painting these candid moments, while more traditional artists enhanced their paintings of posed subjects to show them in the most flattering way.

10 Frustrated with the political and traditional taste of the Paris art scene, she decided to withdraw from the Salon and focused instead on creating art that was more cutting-edge. Her work caught the eye of Edgar Degas and he invited her to exhibit with the Impressionists. Self-portrait, 1878 The Reader, 1878

11 Lilacs in a Window, 1879 The Impressionists were working in a new style called en plein air. They preferred to paint outdoors rather than in a studio. Impressionism is easy to identify because the artists used heavy brushstrokes and the pieces have an almost hazy look to them. Impressionism is not concerned with showing minute details of the subject, instead they are merely impressions. The artists used bright colors and instead of mixing the colors on a palette, they mixed them right on the canvas! This also adds to the texture that you see when you look at the paintings. Woman Standing Holding a Fan,

12 Edgar Degas was an artist who Mary had admired for a long time. She knew his art from her previous trips to Europe and had even purchased a few of his small paintings before he had become famous. It was exciting that someone she had been so inspired by recognized her talent! Mary Cassatt learned as much as she could about Impressionism by working alongside Edgar Degas. As the years went on, the two became colleagues and collaborated on several projects. Edgar Degas worked primarily with pastels and Mary started using them more, too. She made some of her most important pieces with pastels. Edgar Degas, Portrait of Mary Cassatt, 1880

13 Mary Cassatt rarely painted landscapes and unlike other artists, she did not hire models to pose for her. Instead, she used friends and family members like her sister, Lydia. Her sister had always been very sickly and she eventually passed away. There are a few years that historians can not find record of Mary working and they attribute it to her devastation after her sister s death. They know, from letters and other testimonials, that Mary was so distraught about losing her sister, she almost gave up art altogether. Lydia at the Tapestry Loom, 1881 Lydia Leaning on Her Arms, Seated in Loge, 1879

14 Even though she was taking a break from producing art, Mary Cassatt was still very much involved with the art world. Mary came from an upper class family and she was also a working artist. This was the perfect combination for Mary to become a respected art consultant. She was able to advise wealthy clients about the kind of art that would add value to their collections. She introduced many American collectors, such as her good friend Louise Havemeyer, to the Old Masters of Europe and Impressionists. Her brother, Alexander Cassatt, was a President of the Pennsylvania Railroad and he also purchased art under her advisement. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City Mary Cassatt agreed to work with her wealthy clients only if they promised to leave their collections to museums after they passed away. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Shelburne Museum have many pieces thanks to the Havemeyer Family Collection. Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, VT

15 Mary Cassatt never married. Some say it is because she had to choose between having a career or a family. Her early education consisted of all the subjects to make her a successful wife and mother. Her parents put her in classes such as homemaking, embroidery, music, sketching and painting. They probably never dreamed that when they travelled to Europe, Mary would become so enamored with the art that she would decide to become an artist! Now, many women are able to balance having a career and a family. But women have not always had that opportunity. If you think about the women in your own life, you can see a progression. Many of your great-grandmothers probably focused mostly on just raising their family. Your grandmothers generation started to work outside the home as well as take care of their family. And many of your mothers probably balance a career and your family. Girls in your generation can aspire to be almost anything they want! Mary s mother, Katherine, was active in women s rights. Mary herself was not outwardly vocal about her political views and support of women s rights. But her pictures of strong, dignified women were her way of making a silent statement. Reading 'Le Figaro, 1878

16 The Reader, 1877 Nurse Reading to a Little Girl, 1895 Young Woman Sewing in the Garden, 1886

17 In 1893, Mary Cassatt s mural Modern Woman was displayed at the Chicago World s Fair. The mural itself was lost when the building was taken down but there are pictures remaining of it. The three panels represent the advancement of women throughout history. The left side shows Women Pursuing Fame. The middle is Young Women Plucking the Fruits of Knowledge or Science (see a recreated print by George Barrie on the right). The right panel Arts, Music, Dancing shows the girls from the left side as adults who are celebrating their accomplishments.

18 As she embraced Impressionism, she also began to paint children and especially mothers with children, even though she never had any of her own. Children on the Beach, 1884 Young Mother, 1900 A Kiss for Baby Anne, 1897

19 In 1904, Mary Cassatt received the France Legion of Honor award in recognition of her work. She was starting to lose her eyesight because of cataracts. By 1914 she was completely blind and so she was unable to work anymore. She spent the rest of her life at her home in France, where she died on June 14, 1926.

20 Honors and Recognitions -In 1910, a Canadian group of female artists, the Beaver Hall group, joined together to support each other in a male-dominated field. -The United States Navy named a cargo ship after her, the SS Mary Cassatt, which launched on May 16, 1943 during WWII. -In 1985, a group of female musicians at Julliard formed the student string group, The Cassatt Quartet. -Several of Mary Cassatt s paintings have been featured on United States postage stamps. -On May 22, 2009, Google honored her birthday with a Google Doodle.

21 Mary Cassatt s legacy has left an impact on the art world in many ways. She overcame many obstacles to achieve her successes. She was a woman pursuing a career in a male-dominated field, during a time when women were expected to focus on staying home and raising a family. She was an American struggling to make a name for herself while she worked alongside artists in France. And she was not only a producer of art, she also worked as a liaison between artists and collectors, helping to build some of the greatest collections in the world.