After 1886, Cassatt no longer identified herself with any art movement and experimented with a variety of techniques. ==Feminist Viewpoints and the "New Woman"== Cassatt and her contemporaries enjoyed the wave of feminism that occurred in the 1840s, allowing them access to educational institutions at newly coed colleges and universities, such as Oberlin and the University of Michigan.
Mary Stevenson Cassatt (; May 22, 1844June 14, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker.
It is likely that her first exposure to French artists Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Eugène Delacroix, Camille Corot, and Gustave Courbet was at the Paris World's Fair of 1855.
Cassat was an outspoken advocate for women's equality, campaigning with her friends for equal travel scholarships for students in the 1860s, and the right to vote in the 1910s. Mary Cassatt depicted the "New Woman" of the 19th century from the woman's perspective.
She continued her studies from 1861 through 1865, the duration of the American Civil War.
She continued her studies from 1861 through 1865, the duration of the American Civil War.
After overcoming her father's objections, she moved to Paris in 1866, with her mother and family friends acting as chaperones.
In this manner, fellow artist and friend Elizabeth Jane Gardner met and married famed academic painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau. Toward the end of 1866, she joined a painting class taught by Charles Joshua Chaplin, a genre artist.
In 1868, Cassatt also studied with artist Thomas Couture, whose subjects were mostly romantic and urban.
In 1868, one of her paintings, A Mandoline Player, was accepted for the first time by the selection jury for the Paris Salon.
Cassatt's friend Eliza Haldeman wrote home that artists "are leaving the Academy style and each seeking a new way, consequently just now everything is Chaos." Cassatt, on the other hand, continued to work in the traditional manner, submitting works to the Salon for over ten years, with increasing frustration. Returning to the United States in the late summer of 1870—as the Franco-Prussian War was starting—Cassatt lived with her family in Altoona.
She wrote in a letter of July 1871, "I have given up my studio & torn up my father's portrait, & have not touched a brush for six weeks nor ever will again until I see some prospect of getting back to Europe.
I am very anxious to go out west next fall & get some employment, but I have not yet decided where." Cassatt traveled to Chicago to try her luck, but lost some of her early paintings in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
With Emily Sartain, a fellow artist from a well-regarded artistic family from Philadelphia, Cassatt set out for Europe again. ==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.
In 1874, she made the decision to take up residence in France.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Previously a studio-bound artist, she had adopted the practice of carrying a sketchbook with her while out-of-doors or at the theater, and recording the scenes she saw. In 1877, Cassatt was joined in Paris by her father and mother, who returned with her sister Lydia, all eventually to share a large apartment on the fifth floor of 13, Avenue Trudaine, ().
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.
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.
Both were highly experimental in their use of materials, trying distemper and metallic paints in many works, such as Woman Standing Holding a Fan, 1878-79 (Amon Carter Museum of American Art). She became extremely proficient in the use of pastels, eventually creating many of her most important works in this medium.
In 1879, Diego Martelli compared her to Degas, as they both sought to depict movement, light, and design in the most modern sense. ==Early life== Cassatt was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, which is now part of Pittsburgh.
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.
The sophisticated and well-dressed Degas, then forty-five, was a welcome dinner guest at the Cassatt residence, and likewise they at his soirées. The Impressionist exhibit of 1879 was the most successful to date, despite the absence of Renoir, Sisley, Manet and Cézanne, who were attempting once again to gain recognition at the Salon.
She participated in the Impressionist Exhibitions that followed in 1880 and 1881, and she remained an active member of the Impressionist circle until 1886.
She participated in the Impressionist Exhibitions that followed in 1880 and 1881, and she remained an active member of the Impressionist circle until 1886.
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.
Her friend Louisine Elder married Harry Havemeyer in 1883, and with Cassatt as advisor, the couple began collecting the Impressionists on a grand scale.
She participated in the Impressionist Exhibitions that followed in 1880 and 1881, and she remained an active member of the Impressionist circle until 1886.
In 1886, Cassatt provided two paintings for the first Impressionist exhibition in the US, organized by art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel.
After 1886, Cassatt no longer identified herself with any art movement and experimented with a variety of techniques. ==Feminist Viewpoints and the "New Woman"== Cassatt and her contemporaries enjoyed the wave of feminism that occurred in the 1840s, allowing them access to educational institutions at newly coed colleges and universities, such as Oberlin and the University of Michigan.
One example of her thoughtful approach to the medium of drypoint as a mode for reflecting on her status as an artist is 'Reflection' of 1889–90, which has recently been interpreted as a self-portrait.
Cassat was an outspoken advocate for women's equality, campaigning with her friends for equal travel scholarships for students in the 1860s, and the right to vote in the 1910s. Mary Cassatt depicted the "New Woman" of the 19th century from the woman's perspective.
Cassatt objected to being stereotyped as a "woman artist", she supported women's suffrage, and in 1915 showed eighteen works in an exhibition supporting the movement organised by Louisine Havemeyer, a committed and active feminist.
Mary Stevenson Cassatt (; May 22, 1844June 14, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker.
All text is taken from Wikipedia. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License .
Page generated on 2021-08-05