Smart About Art: Mary
Cassatt and "Mother and Child"
Mary Stevenson Cassatt, 1844-1926, the daughter of a very
prosperous local businessman, was born near Pittsburgh, PA. She led a
privileged life, spending much of her childhood in Paris, France, and Germany
with her family. In 1858 her family moved to Philadelphia and she attended the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from 1861-1865, although her family felt that
a career in painting was unsuitable for a woman of her class. Philadelphia was
a minor center for the arts at this time so in keeping with her independent,
original spirit, Mary Cassatt left to study in France after the Civil War.
She studied
briefly in Paris with an academic painter, Charles Chaplin, but she began to
work mainly on her own, first copying the work of Old Masters including the
works of Correggio, Hals, Rubens and Velazquez. Cassatt was known as "une
Americaine" or "the American" by other painters in Paris; although she was
called an expatriate in her own country, she always considered herself an
American in spite of infrequent trips home. In 1870, at the start of the
Franco-Prussian War, she returned to the United States and sold her work while
there. She returned to Parma, Italy, in 1872 to attend the Art Academy where
she continued her studies. A trip to Seville was most influential since she
was able to study the work of Velasquez and other Spanish Realist painters. By
1873, Mary Cassatt returned to Paris, where she began a lifelong friendship
with Louisine Elder, who became Mrs. Havemeyer, the initiator of the great
Havemeyer art collection which eventually went to the Metropolitan Museum, New
York.
Between
1872 and 1876, she exhibited her work at the annual Salon in Paris. In the
Salon of 1874, Edgar Degas admired a painting by young Mary Cassatt and he
remarked "There is a person who feels as I do." Degas, 10 years her senior,
invited Mary Cassatt to join a small group of advanced painters called the
Impressionists who, at that time, were the most ridiculed group of artists in
Europe. She stopped sending her work to the annual Salon, began to exhibit
with the Impressionists and sent paintings to exhibitions in the United States.
Her friendship with Degas lasted for the rest of her life; he became a friend,
mentor and confidant.
It was also Degas who introduced Cassatt to printmaking. The
artist's print was extremely popular in Paris and an excellent way to spread
one's work around as well as make extra income. Lithography and etching were
less interesting to Cassatt than drawing and painting but Degas was
experimenting with techniques that produced more "painterly" effects. His work
inspired Cassatt to create a series of elegant and inventive prints using the
rhythmic profiles and asymmetrical designs of Japanese prints in a new way.
In "The Bath", 1891, the Japanese
influence is very strong with the daring use of many different patterns: the woman's
boldly striped gown, the carpet and the Oriental design on the water pitcher in
the foreground. In 1893-94, she painted "The Boating Party" which is one of
the strongest designs of all her canvases. The strong, black silhouette of the
oarsman with his black shirt and pants, black beret and ultramarine blue sash,
fills the foreground. The colors are strong and intense: blue-green sea, acid
yellow and bright white boat, the beautiful lighter blue of the dress. All the
shapes are strong but natural, especially the relaxed position of the baby's
legs which is a pleasant contrast to the other more rigid forms of the oars and
arms.
The 1905 painting
"Mother and Child" by Mary Cassatt is a fine example of her Impressionistic
candor and constant individuality. This painting delights us with one of her
favorite subjects; an intimate, everyday domestic scene of a mother and child.
Compositional ideas that she learned from Degas include cropping and framing
the scene, as we experience here, to include us as the viewer in the moment.
She adopted the use of strong diagonals that are formed by the chair arms and
back while the mirror frame marks the background with a strong vertical and
horizontal. Movement and activity are created primarily by the eyes, arms
and hands of the mother and child in the composition. They are posed in relaxed
positions with eyes averted, apparently unaware of anyone watching them. The
space seems shallow since more emphasis is given to color, texture and design
than the creation of depth. A reflection of the mother and child in the mirrors
to their right creates an entirely new image, an alternate view of the scene
and visual interest.
Mary Cassatt's interest in Impressionism was natural because
it agreed with ideas she held regarding the nature of art. She has been called
the best of the American Impressionists and the outstanding woman painter of
the nineteenth century. Her work has had more impact in America than in Europe
and was eagerly purchased by American collectors. She was most influential in
directing attention and interest away from European Old masters work toward new
fresh ideas, starting with Impressionism.
