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Mary Stevenson Cassatt (May 22, 1844 – June
14, 1926) was an United States|American painter.

Born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, which is now
part of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania|Pittsburgh, she
was the daughter of a well-do-to businessman.
Cassatt grew up in an environment that valued
education. Her parents believed  travel was a way
to learn, and before she was 10 years old, she
visited many of the capitals of Europe, including
London, Paris, and Berlin.

Despite her family's objections to her becoming a
professional artist, she began studying painting
at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1861-1865). Tired of
patronizing instructors and fellow male students,
and the slow pace of her courses, she decided to
study the Old Masters|old masters on her own and
in 1866 she moved to Paris.

Returning to the United States at the outset of
the Franco-Prussian War, she lived with her
family, but art supplies and models were difficult
to find in the small town. Her father continued to
resist her vocation, and paid only for her basic
needs but not her art supplies. She returned to
Europe in 1871 when the archbishop of Pittsburgh
commissioned her to paint copies of paintings in
Italy, after which she traveled about Europe.

By 1872, after studying in the major European
museums, her style matured, and in Paris, she
studied with Camille Pissarro.

The jury accepted her first painting for the Paris
Salon in 1872. The Salon critics claimed that her
colors were too bright and that her portraits too
accurate to be flattering to the subject.

Upon seeing pastels by Edgar Degas in an art
dealer's window, though, she knew she was not
alone in her rebellion against the Salon. "I used
to go and flatten my nose against that window and
absorb all I could of his art," she wrote to a
friend. "It changed my life. I saw art then as I
wanted to see it."

She met Edgar Degas in 1874, and he invited her to
exhibit with the impressionism|impressionists and
her work hung in the 1879 impressionist show. An
active member of the impressionist circle until
1886, she remained friends with Degas and Berthe
Morisot.

Shortly after her triumphs with the
impressionism|impressionists, Cassatt quit
painting to care for her mother and sister, who
fell ill after moving to Paris in 1877. Her sister
died in 1882, but her mother regained her health,
and Cassatt resumed painting by the mid-1880s.


Her style evolved, and she moved away from
impressionism to a simpler, straightforward
approach. By 1886, she no longer identified
herself with any art movement and experimented
with a variety of techniques. Nearly one third of
her paintings depict a mother and child portrayed
in intimate relationship and domestic settings.

In 1891, she exhibited a series of highly original
colored prints, including Woman Bathing and The
Coiffure, inspired by the Japanese masters shown
in Paris the year before. (See Japonism.)

The 1890s were Cassatt's busiest and most creative
time. She also became a role model for young
American artists who sought her advice. As the new
century arrived, she served as an advisor to
several major art collectors and stipulated that
they eventually donate their purchases to American
art museums. Although instrumental in advising the
American collectors, recognition of her art came
more slowly in the United States.

After a trip to Egypt in 1910, where she was awed
by the ancient art, and her brother's death she
did not paint until 1912. 

Diagnosed with diabetes, rheumatism, neuralgia and
cataracts in 1911, she did not slow down, but
after 1914 she stopped painting because of near
blindness. Nonetheless, she took up the cause of
women's suffrage, and in 1915, she showed 18 works
in an exhibition supporting the movement.

In recognition of her contributions to the arts,
France awarded her the Legion of Honor in 1904. 

She died on June 14, 1926 at Château de
Beaufresne, near Paris, and was buried in the
family vault at Mesnil-Théribus, France.

Before 2005, her paintings sold for as much as
United States dollar|$2.8 million.

Mary Cassatt's brother, Alexander J. Cassatt was
the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad from
1899 until his death in 1906.


==References==
* White, John H., Jr. (Spring 1986), America's
most noteworthy railroaders, Railroad History,
Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, 154, p.
9-15. (mentions family relationship to Alexander
J. Cassatt).

==External links==
*
http://www.biography.com/impressionists/artists_ca
ssatt.html The Impressionists at biography.com.
* http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cassatt/
Mary Cassatt at the WebMuseum.
*
http://www.artinthepicture.com/artists/Mary_Cassat
t/ Mary Cassatt biography, quotes and paintings at
Artinthepicture