Mary Cassatt: Capturing Women and Everyday Life

The text below is the excerpt of the book Mary Cassatt (ISBN: 9798894058733), written by Vicky Sontag, published by Parkstone International.

Her achievement was recognized early. At an 1880 Paris exhibition, the critic Jules Castagnary praised her as “the only artist of an elevated, personal and distinguished talent actually possessed by America, aside from Whistler.” Though perhaps exaggerated, his remark reflects the singularity of her vision: Cassatt always looked at life with her own eyes, forging a distinctive style through rigorous discipline and unswerving independence.

Cassatt’s path to mastery was neither smooth nor conventional. She began at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, one of the few institutions admitting women, but soon grew frustrated with its conservatism. With characteristic resolve, she persuaded her family to support her studies abroad. Italy, Spain and the Low Countries provided her with the lessons of the Old Masters – the clarity of Renaissance structure, the gravity of Baroque drama. Ultimately, Paris became her chosen home, at a time when debates over modern art reached their peak. Here she encountered Manet, Renoir and most decisively, Edgar Degas, whose friendship proved a turning point. Recognizing her skill as a draughtswoman, Degas encouraged her to join the Impressionist exhibitions. Their dialogue, sustained for over fifteen years, was one of mutual respect: She admired his discipline and mastery of line, while he valued her fresh perception and independence. His influence sharpened her technical daring – her firm drawing, bold handling of colour and tone and clarity of form – while she retained her own distinct voice.

Young Woman Sewing in a Garden, 1886, Mary Cassatt — *Young Woman Sewing in a Garden*, 1886. Oil on canvas, 91.4 x 64.8 cm.

Though closely linked to the Impressionists, Cassatt was never bound by the movement’s orthodoxy. Like them, she embraced brighter palettes, freer brushwork and contemporary subjects. Yet, unlike many, she resisted dissolving form into pure light, preserving structure and contour with a discipline akin to Degas. Her prints, deeply inspired by Japanese art, reveal her mastery of spatial innovation and her bold exploration of design. In this synthesis – line and colour, discipline and freedom – she carved out her own modernity.

If Cassatt’s art was forged in France, her impact extended across the Atlantic. She played an indispensable role as a mediator between French Impressionism and American collectors. With remarkable foresight, she urged her compatriots to acquire works by Degas, Monet and Manet – artists still ridiculed in Paris. Through her counsel, many masterpieces entered American collections, forming the foundations of the great museums. In this way, Cassatt not only created her own oeuvre but also shaped the institutions through which modern art would flourish in the United States.

Her career also illuminates the condition of women in the nineteenth-century art world. Denied access to the academies and salons where men trained and exhibited, she constructed her education through determination, travel and personal alliances. Her eventual place among the Impressionists was a triumph not only of talent but of perseverance. Equally significant was her choice of subject matter: Women and children in daily life. By depicting these realities with seriousness and authority, she asserted their worthiness of artistic representation, subtly anticipating the themes of modern feminism – not by rhetoric, but through the quiet strength of her imagery.

Mother and Child, c. 1890, Mary Cassatt — *Mother and Child*, c. 1890. Oil on canvas, 90.2 x 63.5 cm. The Roland P. Murdock Collection, Wichita Art Museum, Wichita.

Even in later years, Cassatt’s creativity remained restless. She revived the brilliance of pastel in the tradition of the eighteenth-century French masters while pioneering daring new colour etchings and printmaking techniques. Her technical audacity never waned, even as her eyesight failed and painting grew increasingly arduous. To the end, she remained admired for her courage and unyielding devotion to her art.

Today, to stand before a Cassatt canvas is to encounter a vision of intimacy suffused with modernity. Her women are not distant muses but vital presences – strong, tender, thoughtful and complex. Her children are not props for charm but individuals, absorbed in their sensations and discoveries. In brush, pastel, or etched line, Cassatt gave modern art a new vocabulary for human connection, one that continues to resonate more than a century later. She endures not only as a bridge between America and France, nor solely as a companion of the Impressionists, but as an artist of indomitable independence – one who saw, with rare clarity, the strength and beauty of everyday life.

The study that follows seeks to situate Cassatt within the broader history of nineteenthcentury art while also attending to the singularity of her vision. It traces her formation in America and Europe, her encounters with Degas and the Impressionists, her innovations in pastel and printmaking and her persistence in the face of illness and prejudice. Above all, it considers the central paradox of her career: That an American woman, working in France, found her most original voice in the intimate depiction of women and children and in so doing gave modern art one of its most enduring images of humanity.