American, 1844-1926

Mary Cassatt was born on May 22, 1844 in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. Her upbringing reflected her family’s high social standing and her schooling prepared her to be a proper wife and mother and included such classes as homemaking, embroidery, music, sketching, and painting.

Through women of her day were discouraged from pursuing a career, Mary Cassatt enrolled in Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts at age 16. She became frustrated by the curriculum’s slow pace and inadequate course offerings. She decided to leave the program and move to Europe where she could study the works of the Old Masters on her own, firsthand.

Despite her family’s strong objections, Mary Cassatt left for Paris in 1866. She began her study with private art lessons in the Louvre, where she would study and copy masterpieces. She continued to study and paint in relative obscurity until 1868, when one of her portraits was selected at the prestigious Paris Salon, an annual exhibition run by the French government. Cassatt submitted the well-received painting under the name Mary Stevenson.

In 1870 Mary Cassatt reluctantly returned home to live with her parents due to the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. The artistic freedom she enjoyed while living abroad was immediately extinguished upon her return to the outskirts of Philadelphia due to the lack of proper supplies and funds.

Shortly after moving home, Cassatt was contacted by the archbishop of Pittsburg who wanted to commission the artist to paint copies of two works by the Italian master Correggio. She accepted the assignment and left immediately for Europe, where the originals were on display in Parma, Italy.  The money she earned from the commission enabled her to resume her career in Europe. The Paris Salon accepted Cassatts paintings for exhibitions in 1872, 1873, and 1874, which helped secure her status as an established artist.

Mary Cassatt was one of the leading artists in the Impressionist movement of the later part of the 1800s. She was befriended by Edgar Degas in Paris, her home for the later part of her life. After 1910, her increasingly poor eyesight virtually put an end to her serious painting. She passed away in 1926.

EDUCATION
1859-1865, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

EXHIBITIONS
2018, 57th Street: America’s Artistic Legacy Part II, Cavalier Galleries, New York, NY
2017-2018, Group Exhibitions, Cavalier Galleries, New York, NY
2016, Spring Group Exhibition, Cavalier Galleries, Greenwich, CT
2016, American Paintings: 150 Years of Exceptional Representational Works, Cavalier Galleries, Greenwich, CT

COLLECTIONS
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Harvard Art Museums, Boston, MA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
National Museum of Women in Arts, Washington, DC
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Musee d’Orsay, Paris
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, KS
Numerous Private Collections

MEMBERSHIPS
The Impressionists (as invited by Edgar Degas)

AWARDS
1904, Legion d’honneur, France

ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Cassatts work has been featured as a US postage stamp multiple times
Her May 22^nd birthday was honored by Google with a Google Doodle