“Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was the most French of all American artists,” said art historian Jerome Coignard. She was the only woman – along with Berthe Morisot – to be recognized by the Impressionist movement and therefore permitted to show her works in their annual Salons.
For 40 years she developed a personal and artistic friendship with Edgar Degas, which was somewhat surprising considering Degas was well known for his misogyny. Her long association with the famous art merchant Paul Durand Ruel, especially after he opened a gallery on Madison Avenue, increased the exposure of impressionism in the US.
The Jacquemart-André Museum in Paris is currently holding a retrospective exhibition of monographs by Mary Cassatt titled, ‘An American Impressionist in Paris.’ It is a long overdue recognition of an artist whose works are found mostly in the US, but who is better known in France. Jacquemart-André is one of the most elegant art galleries in Paris. It was built in the 1860s as one of the townhouses of the imperial aristocracy in the “plaine Monceau” (an area of Paris in the 17th arrondissement.)
The property is slightly set back from Boulevard Haussmann, and on the upper level, opens up onto a vast courtyard under the watchful eyes of two stone lions. The magnificent residence, with its eclectic furniture, boiseries (wood wall paneling), fireplaces and Gobelins tapestries, used to attract thousands of guests from the high society.
In the West Wing of the Metroplitan Museum in New York, paintings by Cassatt are hung in a gallery exclusively reserved for the works of other women. Cassatt might have been upset by this apparent patronization by critics and art historians toward domestic scenes created by women. She might have deemed it unfair because painters like Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940) or Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) are famous for their paintings inspired by the intimacy of the home.
Art historian Guillaume Morel comments that the many mother and child scenes painted by Cassatt were, in fact, more feminist than it appears at first. He writes that she may have found herself endowed with a mission to represent scenes to which men did not have access. Her “maternity scenes” effectively propelled her into modernism.
At the turn of the 20th century, women were tied to their homes, seemingly leading an indolent existence limited to feminine activities, primarily the care of small children. They almost never ventured onto the public place – like a café, race track or a prostitute’s haunt. The subject in “La Loge (The theater box)” (1878) is a departure from this tradition: a self-assured woman is by herself looking through her opera-glasses, and apparently unconcerned by the male spectator staring at her from another balcony.
Even in France, the obstacles inflicted on women artists were enormous: they were neither allowed in the Ecole des Beaux Arts nor were naked models permitted in their art classes. Women could not copy the grands maitres (Old Masters) in museums like the Louvre.
The special talent of Cassatt was to have overcome these obstacles by taking advantage of her place in the privileged class, traveling extensively and establishing contacts with members of the artistic elite such as Isabella Stewart Gardner (Boston), Alfred Atmore Pope (Connecticut) or Henry Walters (Baltimore.)
From a very young age, she rebelled against the formal teaching offered in the few fine art institutions open to women. She hated the idea of learning her craft through the use of castings and copies. She showed an intrepid personality when she told her father she wanted to pursue her artistic education in Europe. Her father admonished her, saying, “I would rather see you dead.”
And her response to her father’s threat? She went anyway.
Cassatt was born in Pittsburgh into a well-to-do family. Her father was an investment banker and her mother was educated in a school created by a former chambermaid of Marie Antoinette. At the age of seven, she sailed for the first time to Europe with her family. David McCullough, in his superb book titled The Greater Journey, published in 2011, describes the luxury steamers carrying less than 300 privileged passengers, who could afford the crossing in comfortable accommodations in an “interior richly embellished with satin wood, gilded ceilings … and indoor plumbing.”
The co-curator of the present exhibit held in Paris, Nancy Mowell Mathews, rejects the expression “woman Impressionist.” She comments, “Mary Cassatt did not paint differently from other Impressionists. What she had in common with them was her taste for rough sketches, the unfinished feel of strokes and her daring cadrages (framing of the subject) mostly used in photography or cinematography.”
Cassatt’s models – mostly members of her family – do not pose in a stilted attitude, but appear relaxed and natural. In “The little girl in a blue armchair” (1878), the little girl is literally sprawling on a big, shapeless, overstuffed blue armchair. And so is the small boy looking at us in the painting called, “Woman sitting with a child in her arms.
“The Cup of Tea “(1880) is an unsurpassed exercise in Impressionist virtuosity. Fast brush strokes and the rejection of details are sufficient to render volumes. The dramatic contrast between the fluffy, pink dress and the black of the solid armchair creates a strong composition. In 1879, Cassatt was officially accepted in the Impressionist Salon. The two following decades marked the summit of her career.
Although Cassatt painted mostly in oils and pastels, Degas had also detected her exceptional talent as both draughtsman and engraver. Her eaux-fortes (etchings) constitute a large part of her works, while “La Toilette” and “The letter ” (both dated 1891) show signs of japonism. The engraving process with a pointe-sèche (dry point) is a painstaking and dangerous process since acid is used.
She was the friend of the most influential American feminists and joined their movement for equality, which had started in the US in 1840. Toward the end of her life, she increasingly devoted her time to counseling American art collectors. Among them was her close friend Lousine Hvenmeyer, wife of wealthy sugar baron, who owned more than 2,000 Impressionist works.
After spending 60 years in France, she died in her estate, the Chateau de Beaufresnes in Le Mesnil Théribus, north west of Paris, although interestingly, she never took French nationality.