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CASSATT'S YOUTH
Mary Cassatt was born May 22, 1843 in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania (USA) as he daughter of a banker. In 1851, at the age of 7, Cassatt and her family moved to Paris and also lived for a short while in Germany. In 1855 the family returned to their home city Pennsylvania and Mary went to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.
CASSATT'S AS AN ARTIST
Mary had made up her mind and wanted to become an artist. But society wasn't very keen on a woman in this position, so Mary had to put in an effort to receive permission for becoming an artist. In 1866, at the ahe of twenty-two, Mary succeeded and returned to Paris.
Once in Paris, Mary Cassatt started making copies of works in The Louvre and other museums. The young woman was obviously very talented and very well skilled, so in 1872 she was accepted by the judges of the Salon.
Mary Cassatt met Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro and other Impressionist rebels who where all refused by the Salon because of ther rebellious style. Therefore they had started a new salon in reaction to the Salon: Le Salon des Refugées was born. In 1877, Edgar Degas invited her invited her to exhibit with his fellow impressionists. Cassatt was particularly fond of the work of Degas, as well as that of Manet and Courbet.
In 1882, Mary Cassatt's style took a sudden turn where she, influenced by Edgar Degas, began emphasizing line rather than form or mass and experimenting with asymmetric compositions. In 1892 was Cassatt's big breakthrough when she was commissioned for a mural at the World Fair in Chicago.
CASSATT'S LAST YEARS
Because of faling eyesight, Mary Cassatt had to stop painting in 1914. When Cassatt eventually died in 1926 at the ahe of 82 she had already become blind.
CASSATT AND AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISM
Mary Cassatt's artistic period was in Paris. However Cassatt's works played a key role in the development of American Impressionism. The artist often sent paintings back to exhibitions in the United States and thus was she one of the introducers of Impressionism in her home country.
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