Mary Cassatt: The Life of an Artist: Art History School

hello my name is paul priestley welcome to art history school the home of art history for everyone today we are going to look at the american artist mary cassatt who was who mixed impressionism japanese art and domesticity and created some wonderful paintings mary stevenson cassatt was born in pittsburgh america on the 22nd of may 1844 one of six children born to robert and catherine cassatt the family were wealthy and a mother catherine was a strong believer in educating women to be knowledgeable and socially active so it is not surprising that mary cassatt depicted the 19th century new woman from the woman's perspective she studied initially in the u.s but spent most of her life in france returning occasionally to america to see friends in paris she met the artist edgar de gar and they remained close friends for the rest of their lives although she never married she was enchanted by her nieces and nephews and excelled in painting children who dominate her subject matter she is best known for her paintings of mother and child groups and fashionable portraits her early work with impressionists is probably her best and is sometimes known as the painter and poet of the nursery her paintings are filled with light and joy perhaps not with what you would expect from the brush of a strong-minded and somewhat stubborn woman she was at her best with other artists who she saw as her intellectual equals a strong supporter of women's rights and votes for women's campaign she lived into her eighties but unfortunately her life did not end well mary cassatt was born in 1844 in algeria city later part of pittsburgh to a comfortably upper middle class family her father was a successful stockbroker and her mother belonged to a prosperous banking family her father's family were a french origin having left france in 1662 with the surname cossack her mother's ancestors came from scotland around 1700. in 1851 cassatt's parents took her along with her brothers and sisters to france and germany where they lived until 1855 before returning to the united states consequently the children were fluent in both languages at the age of 16 in 1860 cassatt began two years of study at the pennsylvania academy of fine arts where only 20 percent of the students were female she was soon disillusioned at being patronized by the male students and the tutors and dismayed at the slow pace of instruction and the fact that female students could not draw from live models in 1865 disappointed with her art education in the united states she eventually persuaded her father to let her continue her artistic training abroad despite their initial misgivings they agreed and she moved with her mother a chaperone to paris to study at the studio of jean leon jerome since women were not allowed to attend the prestigious eccol de bozarts she returned to the united states in 1870 because of the franco prussian war and stayed with her parents but her father refused to pay for her art materials and frustrated by a lack of artistic resources and opportunities she traveled briefly to chicago where she lost some of her early works in the great fire of chicago in 1871. in the autumn of that year she returned to paris and in 1872 her painting two women throwing flowers during a carnival was well received at the paris salon and was later sold later in 1874 cassatt set up her own studio in paris and was joined by her sister lydia paris was experiencing the artistic innovations and impressionism but her family persuaded her to join the studio of charles chaplin an academic painter she was miserable there refusing to be subdued by his artistic formulas in 1875 she had a painting refused by the salon and two more refused in 1877. female artists often had their work dismissed contemptuously by the conservative french salon and she steadfastly refused to flirt with jurors to cullery favor she became disenchanted with the politics and the traditional tastes of paris's official art world she said at last i could work with absolute independence without considering the opinion of a jury i had all recognized who were my true masters i admired monet kobe and i hated conventional art i began to live always single-minded and self-reliant cassatt concentrated on painting in the city whereas she said later women did not have to fight for recognition if they did serious work in 1877 cassatt was joined in paris by her parents and sister lydia all of whom shared a large apartment at 13 avenue through dain later that year the artist edgar degas invited her to join an independent artist group known as the impressionists she was delighted she admired the girls work and they soon became close friends often working side by side encouraging and invite advising each other she socialized with other artists in the group particularly camille pisarro who became a mentor and bertha morisso the only other female in the group for the 1879 impressionist exhibition degas sent in the list of her works together with his own and proceeded to guide her not as a pupil but as a respected ally he taught her to love form and disregard useless detail and to adopt the practice of carrying a sketchbook to record what she saw dagar also suggested that she paint portraits in this painting little girl in a blue armchair not only did dega advise her but he actually painted part of the background himself the fourth impressionist exhibition in 1879 her first was a success one painting of her sister lydia in a luge wearing a pearl necklace was subsequently sent with other paintings to the third exhibition of the society of american artists in new york some critics praised her work but others were far from impressed impressionist paintings were rare in america at the time and probably misunderstood in 1883 mrs robert moore riddle and her daughter visited they brought a canton tea set as a present cassatt subsequently painted mrs riddle's portrait with the tea set as you can see here influenced by japanese prints which have become very popular in paris cassatt incorporated japanese ideas of design into mrs riddle's portrait you'll notice the figure is almost a flattened silhouette and its outlines count as the dominant element in the design the face is treated more two-dimensionally with the blue eyes as accents which reflect the intense blue of the china here in the foreground the entire effect was quite different from her earlier work cassatt continued to exhibit with the impressionists in their exhibitions of 1880 and 1881. and remained an active member of the impressionist circle until around 1886. later that year she was included in the first major exhibition of impressionist art in the united states held in new york she continued to specialize in scenes of women in domestic interiors with the impressionist emphasis on quickly captured moments of contemporary life but she now expanded her technique from oil painting and drawing to pastels and print making japanese wood block prints provided new lessons in composition and the japanese use of black something the impressionist disapproved of provided new inspiration cassatt herself never married or had children yet by the mid-1880s she had become well known for her sensitive depictions of mothers and children these works like all her portrayals of women may have achieved popular success because they filled society's need to idealize women's domestic roles at a time when many women were in fact beginning to take an interest in voting rights dress reform higher education and social equality in the summer of 1890 she completed a series of ten color prints which are amongst her most original works when they were exhibited the following year both degas and pisarro were charmed by them in 1891 a businesswoman bertham palmer approached cassatt to paint a 12-foot by 58-foot mural about modern woman for the women's building for the world's colombian exposition to be held in 1893 in chicago taking bertha's philosophy that women should be someone and not something the mural displayed a community of women apart from men as accomplished persons in their own right unfortunately the mural did not survive when the exhibition ended in 1893 she created this painting the child's bath in this painting of a woman bathing her young daughter cassatt as combines the stylistic influences japanese art with the traditional artistic subject matter of the madonna and child making her image secular rather than religious the variety of patterns in this composition including several floral designs and bold stripes of the woman's dress is united by a restrained palette of grays and moves the soft colorization allows the viewer to concentrate on the subject of the scene the close relationship between mother and child in 1893 she had an exhibition at duran rowell's gallery in paris it was her first comprehensive exhibition and she had waited until she was almost 50 years old before making arrangements to hold it she had a one-man show in new york in 1895 but the audience was poor and sales few cassatt wrote to an american friend stating i am much disappointed that my compatriots have so little liking for any of my work she traveled again to america in 1898 and remained there for almost six months visiting her brother in philadelphia as well as well-connected friends such as the hammonds the sears the whitmores and the stillmans most of whom were collectors of the work after 1900 cassatt suffered from failing health and deteriorating eyesight however she remained close friends with other artists and the american collectors harry and louise hevermeier although she and degas suffered a rift in their friendship during the infamous dreyfus affair of the late 1890s cassatt like pissarro monet was pro-dreyfus while degar was against dreyfus they later made amends in 1904 cassatt was recognized for her cultural contributions by the french government which awarded her the order of chevalier of the legion de onaire she made her last visit to the united states in 1908 shortly after her brother alexander the president of the pennsylvania railroad had died in 1906. after the early 1900s an increasing sentimentality is apparent in her work she was still popular with the public and the critics but she was no longer breaking new ground and her impressionist colleagues who once provided stimulation and criticism were dying she was hostile to the new developments in art such as post-impressionism fovism and cubism yet two other paintings appeared in the famous armory show of 1913 both images of mother and child in 1911 cassatt traveled to egypt with her younger brother gardner and his family and was hugely impressed by the art of the ancient egyptians the trip ended tragically when her brother suddenly died shattered by the loss she also suffered a crisis of creativity as a consequence of the two events she had a complete breakdown and did not work for almost two years by 1914 due to increasing blindness cassatt was forced to stop painting she was also suffering from diabetes rheumatism and cataracts but in 1915 a rare event took place a two artist exhibition featuring a male and female artist namely edgar de gar america sat it took place at the nodela gallery in new york and was organized by louise hivermeier in support of women's suffrage during world war one cassatt stayed mostly in the south of france at grass because her chateau in mensael theribo was in the battle zone her close friend edgar degas died in 1917 mary cassatt was now alone her final years were spent in almost total blindness she was bitterly unhappy at being robbed of her greatest source of pleasure she died on the 14th of june 1926. in 1973 cassatt was inducted into the national women's hall of fame in new york usa thank you for watching i hope you really enjoyed learning about mary cassatt a wonderful artist if you have then please subscribe to my channel and if you do please do not forget to 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Channel: Art History School

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Keywords: Mary Stevenson Cassatt, mary cassatt, Impressionism, Paul Priestley, artist in school, art history, famous artists, art history school, artist, history of art, 19th century art, women artists, Impressionist, Female Impressionist, painter, Mary cassatt documentary, Edgar Degas, Allegheny City, Pittsburgh, Camille Pissarro, Women in art, mary cassat, Mary cassatt extraordinary impressionist painter, female artist, female artists, woman artist, mary cassett

Id: uPlJ9CJPwpc

Length: 16min 0sec (960 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 10 2021