Mary Cassatt
Mary Cassatt, one of the few Women Impressionists in France, was the only American in the group. She was the daughter of a wealthy Pennsylvania banker, traveled extensively through Italy, Belgium, and Spain, and trained in Paris with several notable teachers including Gérôme and Couture. She met Degas in 1877, and though their friendship would be fitful and end in total estrangement, the encounter proved meaningful for both artists. Under Degas' influence, Cassatt's early, earthy realist style gave way to a more Impressionistic approach. He in turn, recruited a sympathetic artisan for his realist faction of Impressionism. Like Degas, Cassatt explored various techniques, including pastels and graphics. She also shared his abiding interest in Japanese art. Excluded from many of her male colleagues' haunts, Cassatt appropriated as her specialty images of upper-class women and children. Characteristic of her later work is this pastel, Margot in Blue, showing a child wearing a floppy white bonnet and blue dress. Cassatt painted many portraits of Margot wearing different costumes.
If you would like to learn more about Mary Cassatt, her friendship with Degas, and many other things, please check our Mega Impressionism Course (with 20 (!) online lessons).
P.S. See Mary Cassatt's most important work, Little Girl in a Blue Armchair. Lovely, isn't it? <3
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