biography
| name: |
Cassatt, Mary (Stevenson)
|
pronunciation:
[kasat]
| sex:
| female
|
| lived:
| (1844–1926)
|
| biography:
| Painter, born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, USA. Born into a prosperous family, she studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1861–5) but found it out-dated. During 1866–74 she studied and painted in Paris, Italy, Spain, and Holland, finally settling in Paris, her home for the rest of her life. Befriended by Degas, she was soon characterized as an Impressionist painter in both style and subject matter. By 1883 she was emphasizing more the linear aspect, and the 1890 exhibition of Japanese prints in Paris also influenced her style. She never married, but her own family gradually joined her in Paris. After 1910 her increasingly poor eyesight virtually put an end to her serious painting. She is best known for her luminous portraits of women and children, such as ‘The Morning Toilet’ (1886) and ‘Mother Feeding a Child’ (1898). A less recognized legacy was her influence in getting many Americans to acquire Impressionist and other contemporary French paintings now in US museums. |
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