Mary Stevenson Cassatt ( ; May 22, 1844 - June 14, 1926) was an American painter and graphicist. He was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania (Now part of the North side of Pittsburgh), but lived most of his adult life in France, where he first became friends with Edgar Degas and then exhibited among the Impressionists. Cassatt often creates a picture of the social and personal life of women, with special emphasis on the intimate bond between mother and child.
He was described by Gustave Geffroy in 1894 as one of the "les trois grandes dames" of Impressionism with Marie Bracquemond and Berthe Morisot.
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Cassatt was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, now part of Pittsburgh. He was born into a middle-upper class family: His father, Robert Simpson Cassat (later Cassatt), was a successful stockbrokers and land speculators. He descended from the French Huguenot Jacques Cossart, who came to New Amsterdam in 1662. His mother, Katherine Kelso Johnston, came from a banking family. Katherine Cassatt, educated and widely read, had a great influence on her daughter. For that, Cassatt's lifelong friend Louisine Havemeyer wrote in his memoir: "Anyone who has the privilege of knowing Mary Cassatt's mother will soon know that it is from her and herself that [Mary] inherits her abilities." The name of his ancestor was Cossart. The distant cousin of artist Robert Henri, Cassatt is one of seven children, of whom two died in infancy. One brother, Alexander Johnston Cassatt, later became president of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The family moved east, first to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, then to the Philadelphia area, where he started his school at the age of six.
Cassatt grew up in an environment that views travel as an integral part of education; he spent five years in Europe and visited many capitals, including London, Paris, and Berlin. While abroad, he studied German and French and got first lessons in drawing and music. It is likely that the first exposure to French artist Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Eugène Delacroix, Camille Corot, and Gustave Courbet was at the Paris World Expo in 1855. Also in the exhibition were Edgar Degas and Camille Pissarro, both of whom were later colleagues and mentors.
Although his family objected to him becoming a professional artist, Cassatt began studying painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia at the age of 15. Part of his parents' concerns may be Cassatt's exposure to feminist ideas and bohemian behavior. of some male students. Thus, Cassatt and his friends network are lifelong supporters of the equality of rights for gender. Although about 20 percent of students are women, most view art as a socially valuable skill; some of them determined, like Cassatt, to make art their career. He continued his studies from 1861 to 1865, the duration of the American Civil War. Among his fellow students were Thomas Eakins, who later became the director of the controversial Academy.
Impatient with the slow instruction and demeaning attitudes of male students and teachers, he decided to study the old masters themselves. He then said, "No teaching" in the Academy. Female students can not use the model of life, until quite a while, and the main training is mainly drawing from the players.
Cassatt decided to end his studies: At that time, no degree was awarded. After overcoming his father's objections, he moved to Paris in 1866, with his mother and family friends acting as a companion. Since women have not been able to attend ÃÆ'â € cole des Beaux-Arts, Cassatt enrolls to study privately with teachers from school and are accepted to study with Jean-LÃÆ' © © in GÃÆ'Ã… © rÃÆ'Â'me, a highly respected teacher who known for his hyper. Realistic techniques and depictions of exotic subjects. (A few months later, GÃÆ' Â © rÃÆ'Â'me also received Eakins as a student.) Cassatt added his art training with daily copying at the Louvre, obtaining necessary permissions, needed to control the "copyists", usually low-paying women, who daily fill museum to paint copies for sale. The museum also serves as a social venue for French and American female students, who, like Cassatt, are not allowed to attend cafes where the vanguard is socialized. In this way, fellow artist and friend Elizabeth Jane Gardner met and married the famous academic painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau.
Toward the end of 1866, he joined a painting class taught by Charles Chaplin, a famous genre artist. In 1868, Cassatt also studied with artist Thomas Couture, who was largely romantic and urban. On the way to the countryside, students withdraw from life, especially the farmers who perform their daily activities. In 1868 one of his paintings, Mandolin Player , was received for the first time by an electoral juror for Paris Salon. With Elizabeth Jane Gardner, whose work was also accepted by the jury that year, Cassatt was one of the first two American women to be exhibited at the Salon. The Mandolin Player is in the Romantic Romance of Corot and Couture, and is one of two paintings from the first decade of his career documented today.
The French art scene is in the process of change, as radical artists such as Courbet and Manet try to break away from accepted Academic traditions and Impressionists in their formative years. Cassatt's friend Eliza Haldeman writes that the artists "abandoned the Academy style and each looked for a new way, consequently now it's all a Chaos." Cassatt, on the other hand, continues to work the traditional way, sending his work to the Salon for over ten years, with increasing frustration.
Returning to the United States at the end of the summer of 1870 - when the Franco-Prussian War began - Cassatt lived with his family in Altoona. His father continued to reject his chosen calls, and paid for his basic needs, but not his stock of art. Cassatt put his two paintings in the New York gallery and found many admirers but no buyers. He is also disappointed with the lack of painting to study while living in his summer residence. Cassatt even considered stopping work, because he was determined to live independently. He wrote in a July letter of 1871, "I have given up my studio and tore my father's portrait, & have not touched a brush for six weeks and never again until I see some prospects for returning to Europe I really want to go to the West in autumn up and get a job, but I have not decided where. "
Cassatt went to Chicago to try his luck but lost some of his early paintings at the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. Shortly after, his work caught the attention of the archbishop of Pittsburgh, who commissioned him to paint two copies of the painting by Correggio in Parma, Italy, advance his considerable money to cover travel expenses and a portion of his stay. In his excitement he writes, "How wild I am to work, my fingers itching & my eyes water to see a great picture again". Together with Emily Sartain, a fellow artist from a highly respected artistic family from Philadelphia, Cassatt left for Europe again.
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Impressionism
Within a few months after he returned to Europe in the fall of 1871, Cassatt's prospects became brighter. His Paintings Two Women Flowering During the Carnival was well received at the Salon in 1872, and purchased. He attracted many favorable notices in Parma and was supported and encouraged by the art community there: "All Parma talk about Miss Cassatt and her photograph, and everyone wants to know her".
After completing his duties for the archbishop, Cassatt went to Madrid and Seville, where he painted a group of Spanish subject paintings, including Spanish Dancers Wearing Mantilla Lace (1873, at the National Museum of American Art), Smithsonian Institution). In 1874, he decided to stay in France. She joins her sister Lydia who shares her apartment. Cassatt opened the studio in Paris. Louisa May Alcott's older sister, Abigail May Alcott, was an art student in Paris and visited Cassatt. Cassatt continues to express criticism of Salon's politics and the conventional sense prevailing there. He was very rude in his commentary, as reported by Sartain, who writes: "he is completely overcut, scoffs all modern art, belittles the image of the Cabanel Salon, Bonnat, all the names we use to be respected".
Cassatt sees that women's works are often ignored with contempt, unless the artist has a friend or protector on the jury, and he will not flirt with the jury to lick. His cynicism grew when one of the two photographs he sent in 1875 was rejected by the jury, only to be accepted the following year after he darkened the background. He quarreled with Sartain, who thought Cassatt was too outspoken and selfish, and eventually they parted ways. Out of his distress and criticism, Cassatt decided that he needed to move from genre painting and to a more fashionable subject, to draw a portrait commission from American socialites abroad, but that effort did not bear fruit at first.
In 1877, both of his works were rejected, and for the first time in seven years he did not work in the Salon. At the low point of his career he was invited by Edgar Degas to show his works with Impressionists, a group that had started a series of independent exhibitions of their own in 1874 with much fame officers. The Impressionists (also known as "Independents" or "Intransigents") have no formal manifesto and vary greatly in subject matter and techniques. They tend to prefer plein air painting and bright color applications in separate scratches with little pre-mixing, allowing the eyes to combine the results in an "impressionistic" way. The Impressionists have received the anger of critics for several years. Henry Bacon, a friend of Cassatts, thinks that the Impressionists are so radical that they "suffer from an eye disease that is not known until now". They already have one female member, artist Berthe Morisot, who became a friend and colleague of Cassatt.
Cassatt admired Degas, whose pastel made a strong impression on him when he met them at the art dealer's window in 1875. "I used to go and flatten my nose to the window and absorb everything I could from his art," he later recalled. "It changed my life, I saw art at that time because I wanted to see it." He accepted Degas' invitation with enthusiasm, and began preparing paintings for the next Impressionist show, planned for 1878, which (after a World Fair delay) took place on 10 April 1879. He was comfortable with the Impressionists and joined them. for enthusiastically, declaring: "we do a desperate struggle & need all our troops". Unable to attend cafes with them without attracting unpleasant attention, he meets them personally and at the exhibition. He is now hoping for a commercial success selling paintings to modern Parisians who prefer avant-garde. His style has gained new spontaneity over the past two years. Previously a studio-bound artist, he had adopted the practice of carrying sketchbooks while outdoors or in the theater, and recording the scene he saw.
In 1877, Cassatt joined Paris by his father and mother, who returned with his older brother Lydia, all eventually sharing a large apartment on the fifth floor of 13, Avenue Trudaine, ( 48.8816 Â ° N 2.3446 Â ° E /span> 48.8816; 2.3446 ). Mary appreciated their friendship, because neither she nor Lydia was married. A case was made that Mary suffered from a narcissistic disorder, never completing her confession as a person outside her mother's orbit. Mary had decided early in life that marriage would not suit her career. Lydia, often painted by her sister, suffered repeated disease, and her death in 1882 left Cassatt temporarily unable to work.
Cassatt's father insisted that his studio and supplies were covered by sales, which are still very few. Fearing to paint "potboiler" to meet the needs, Cassatt applied himself to produce some quality paintings for the next Impressionist exhibition. Three of his most successful works from 1878 are the Artist Portrait, the Little Girl in the Blue Chair, and Reading Le Figaro portrait of his mother).
Degas has a big influence on Cassatt. Both are very experimental in the use of materials, trying to distemper and paint metallic in many works, such as Woman Standing Holding a Fan , 1878-79 (Amon Carter Museum of American Art).
He became very adept at using pastels, eventually creating many of his most important works in this medium. Degas also introduced him to etching, where he was a recognized teacher. Both work side by side for a while, and the concept gains considerable strength under its guidance. He describes it in a series of paintings that record their journey to the Louvre. He valued his friendship but learned not to expect too much from his fluid and temperamental nature after a project they were working on at the time, a journal that was proposed for printing, was suddenly dropped by him. The sophisticated das and nice dress, then forty-five, was a welcome dinner guest at Cassatt's residence, as well as those at soirà ©  © es. .
The Impressionist Exhibition of 1879 was the most successful to date, although there was no Renoir, Sisley, Manet and CÃÆ' Â © zanne, who tried once again to gain recognition at the Salon. Through the efforts of Gustave Caillebotte, who organized and guaranteed the event, the group made a fortune and sold many works, although the criticism remained as harsh as ever. The Revue des Deux Mondes writes, "M. Degas and Mlle.Cassatt is, however, the only artist that distinguishes them... and that offers some fascination and several reasons in a magnificent performance of window dressing and infant daub. "
Cassatt displays eleven works, including Lydia in Loge, Wearing Pearl Necklaces, (Woman in a Loge) . Although critics claim that Cassatt's colors are too bright and that his portraits are too accurate to be flattered by the subject, his work is not as popular as Monet, the most desperate of all the Impressionists at the time. He used his share of the profits to buy Degas and another by Monet. He participated in the Impressionist Exhibition that followed in 1880 and 1881, and he remained an active member of the Impressionist circle until 1886. In 1886, Cassatt provided two paintings for the first Impressionist exhibition in the US, hosted by artist Paul Durand-Ruel. His friend Louisine Elder married Harry Havemeyer in 1883, and with Cassatt as a counselor, the couple began to gather the Impressionists on a grand scale. Most of their collections are now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Cassatt also made several portraits of family members during that period, in which Alexander Cassatt's Portrait and His Son Robert Kelso (1885) were the ones he considered the best. Cassatt's style evolved, and he moved from Impressionism to a simpler and more straightforward approach. He began to showcase his works in the New York gallery as well. After 1886, Cassatt no longer identified himself with any art movement and experimented with various techniques.
Feminist Viewpoint and "New Woman"
Cassatt and his contemporaries enjoyed a wave of feminism that occurred in the 1840s, allowing them access to educational institutions in new colleges and universities, such as Oberlin and the University of Michigan. Likewise, female colleges like Vassar, Smith and Wellesley opened their doors during this time. Cassat is a vocal advocate for women's equality, campaigning with his friends for the same travel scholarship for students in the 1860s, and the right to vote in the 1910s.
Mary Cassatt described the "New Lady" in the 19th century from a woman's perspective. As a successful and highly trained female artist who never married, Cassatt - like Ellen Day Hale, Elizabeth Coffin, Elizabeth Nourse and Cecilia Beaux - personify "New Woman". He "embarked on a profound beginning in creating a new 'female' image," drawn from the influence of an intelligent and active mother, Katherine Cassatt, who believes in educating women to have knowledge and be socially active. He is depicted in Reading 'Le Figaro' (1878).
Although Cassatt does not explicitly make political statements about women's rights in his work, his artistic depiction of women is consistently done with the dignity and advice of a deeper and meaningful inner life. Cassatt objected to being stereotyped as a "female artist", he supported women's suffrage, and in 1915 showed eighteen works in an exhibition that supported the movement organized by Louisine Havemeyer, a committed and active feminist. The exhibition brought him into conflict with his brother-in-law Eugenie Carter Cassatt, who was anti-voting and boycotted the show along with the Philadelphia community in general. Cassatt responded by selling his work that should be reserved for his heirs. Specifically The Boating Party, allegedly inspired by the birth of Eugenie's daughter, Ellen Mary, was bought by the National Gallery, Washington DC.
Relationship with Degas
Cassatt and Degas have a long collaboration period. Both have adjacent studios, Cassatt at 19, rue Laval, ( 48,8808 Â ° N 2,3384 Â ° E / 48.8808; 2,3384 ), Degas at 4, rue Frochot, ( 48.8811 Â ° N 2.3377 Â E / 48.8811; 2.3377 ), less than five minutes walk, and Degas used to look around at Cassatt's studio and offer his advice and help him get the model.
They share many similarities: they share the same tastes in art and literature, come from a prosperous background, have learned to paint in Italy, and both are independent, never married. The degree of intimacy between them can not be judged now, as no letter survives, but it is impossible for them to be in a relationship given their conservative social background and strong moral principles. Some of Vincent van Gogh's letters prove the existence of Degas sexual enhancement. Degas introduced Cassatt to pastels and carvings, both of which were controlled by Cassatt quickly, while for his part Cassatt was instrumental in helping Degas sell his paintings and promote his reputation in America.
Both consider themselves to be painters of figures, and art historian George Shackelford points out that they were influenced by art critic Louis Edmond Duranty in his pamphlet of New Paintings for revitalization in the painting of figures: "Let us leave from the human body, which is treated like a vase.What we need is a modern person who has character in his clothes, in the midst of his social environment, at home or on the streets. "
After Cassatt's parents and sister joined Cassatt in Paris in 1877, Degas, Cassatt, and Lydia were often seen in the Louvre studying artwork together. Degas produced two prints, renowned for his technical innovations, depicting Cassatt at the Louvre looking at artwork while Lydia read the manual. This was destined for the printed journal planned by Degas (along with Camille Pissarro and others), which never worked. Cassatt often poses for Degas, especially for the women's clothing series that try to cap.
Around 1884 Degas made a portrait in Cassatt's oil, Mary Cassatt Sitting, Holding the Card . A circa 1880 Self Portrait by Cassatt describes himself in identical hats and clothes, leads Griselda Pollock to speculate that they were executed in a joint painting session in their early years. contacts.
Cassatt and Degas worked closely together in the fall and winter of 1879-80 when Cassatt mastered his graphic art techniques. Degas has a small printing press, and during the day he works in his studio using his tools and punched in the evening he makes a study for the etching plate the next day. However, in April 1880, Degas suddenly withdrew from the print journal they had developed, and without his support, the project was folded. Degas's withdrawal tickled Cassatt who had worked hard in preparing prints, In the Opera Box , in a fifty-issue edition of the show, undoubtedly destined for journals. Although Cassatt's warm feelings for Degas are enduring throughout his life, he never again works with him as closely as he had during his journal printing. Mathews notes that he stopped executing his current theatrical scene.
Degas frankly in his eyes, like Cassatt. They clashed over Dreyfus affairs (early in his career he had executed a portrait of art collector Moyse Dreyfus, a relative of lieutenant court-martialled at the center of affairs). Cassatt then expressed his satisfaction with the irony of the exhibition with his 1915 Lousine Havermeyer and Degas' work to help women's suffrage, equally able to lovingly repeat Degas's antifemale comments as alienated by them (when he saw Two Women) Fruit for the first time, he commented "No woman is entitled to draw like that"). From the 1890s onwards their relationship took on a clear commercial aspect, as in general had another Cassatt relationship with the Impressionist circle; nevertheless they continued to visit each other until Degas's death in 1917.
Next life
Cassatt's popular reputation is based on a wide range of paintings and prints that are meticulous, gentle, observable, but mostly un-sentimental on the theme of mother and child. The earliest date job on this subject is Dry Point Gardner Held by his Mother (an impression written "Jan/88" is in the New York Public Library), though he has painted some earlier works on the theme. Some of these works depict his relatives, friends, or his own clients, although in his later years he usually used a professional model in compositions that often reminded the depictions of Renaissance Madonna and Italian Children. After 1900, he concentrated almost exclusively on the subject of mother and son.
The 1890's was Cassatt's busiest and most creative time. He has grown and become more diplomatic and less sharp in his opinion. He is also a role model for young American artists seeking his advice. Among them was Lucy A. Bacon, who was introduced by Cassatt to Camille Pissarro. Although the Impressionist group disbanded, Cassatt still has contacts with several members, including Renoir, Monet, and Pissarro.
In 1891, he exhibited a series of very original colored drypoint and aquatint prints, including Woman Bathing and The Coiffure, inspired by Japanese masters featured in Paris the previous year. (See Japonism) Cassatt is interested in the simplicity and clarity of Japanese design, and the use of skilled color blocks. In his interpretation, he uses bright, smooth pastel colors and avoids black (the "forbidden" colors of the Impressionists). Adelyn D. Breeskin, the most famous historian of Cassatt and author of two catalogs raisonnà ©  © s of his work, noting that this colored mold, "now stands as its most original contribution... adds a new chapter to the history of art graphics... technically, as color prints, they are never exceeded ".
Also in 1891, Chicago businessman Bertha Palmer approached Cassatt to paint a '58' on 'Modern Women' mural for the Women's Building for a World Colonial Exhibition to be held in 1893. Cassatt completed the project for the next two years while living in France with his mother. The mural was designed as a triptych. A central theme entitled Young Women Picking Fruit of Knowledge or Science . The left panel is Young Girls Pursuing Fame and the right panel Art, Music, Dance . This mural features a community of women regardless of their relationship with men, as those who excel with their own rights. Palmer regards Cassatt as an American treasure and can not think of anyone better to paint a mural on an exposition that does much to focus the world on the status of women. Unfortunately the mural did not last after the exhibition took place when the building was torn down. Cassatt makes some research and paintings with themes similar to those in a mural, so it's possible to see the development of ideas and pictures. Cassatt also exhibited other paintings in the Exhibition.
When the new century arrived, Cassatt served as an advisor to several major art collectors and determined that they eventually donated their purchases to the American art museum. In recognition of his contribution to art, France rewarded him LÃÆ' Â © gion d'honneur in 1904. Although instrumental in advising American collectors, his art recognition came more slowly in the United States. Even among his family members in America, he received little recognition and was completely overshadowed by his famous brother.
Mary Cassatt's brother Alexander Cassatt was president of the Pennsylvania Railroad from 1899 until his death in 1906. He was shocked, as they were imminent, but he continued to be very productive in the years leading up to 1910. Increased sentimentality is seen in his work in the 1900s; his work is popular with the public and critics, but he is no longer opening new land, and his Impressionist colleagues who once provided dull stimuli and criticism. He is hostile to new developments in art such as post-Impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism. Two of his works appeared on the Weapon Show from 1913, both images of a mother and child.
The journey to Egypt in 1910 made Cassatt impressed by the beauty of ancient art, but was followed by a crisis of creativity; not only the journey that depleted it, but he declared himself "crushed by the power of this Art", saying, "I am against it but it is conquered, it must be the greatest Art that has ever left us... how my hand is weak to paint the effect on me." Diagnosed with diabetes, rheumatism, neuralgia, and cataracts in 1911, he did not slow down, but after 1914 he was forced to stop painting when he was almost blind.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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