Mary Cassatt (1844 to 1926) was a painter from Pennsylvania who settled in Paris and became the only American to show with the French Impressionists. Among the surprises in her story: Edgar Degas painted part of one of her best known pictures, and technical analysis has found his brushwork.
She never married and had no children, yet she became the painter most people connect with mothers and small children.
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The word "only" makes it sound as if she walked in alone. She did not. Degas, who was already showing with the Impressionists, asked her to exhibit with them in 1877. From then on he was her chief mentor, correcting her technique and introducing her to printmaking.
She had reasons of her own to accept. She was frustrated with the Salon, whose jury decided what Paris would see, and she was ready to break with the art establishment. The Impressionists offered a wall that no jury controlled.
Still, the line between mentor and pupil was never clean. One of her best known pictures carries his brushwork, and Cassatt said so herself in a letter.
What did Cassatt's father say when she chose painting?
When she told him she wanted to study art in Paris, he answered that he would rather see her dead…
What You'll Discover
Where Degas first saw her work.
What the infrared camera found.
The mural no one can find.
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