Mary Cassatt (1844-1926)Mary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. She lived most of her life in France, where she befriended Edgar Degas and exhibited with the Impressionists. Cassatt paintings most often depicted the private lives of women, especially on the special bond that exits between mothers and daughters.
Mary Cassatt was born in Pennsylvania, and her family valued travel as part of education. Despite her family's objections to her pursuit of a career in art, she enrolled in art school in Pennsylvania. Cassatt moved to Paris in 1866 to study the old masters. She was accepted into the Paris Salon in 1872, but critics said her paintings were too bright and too realistic, thus making her subjects unflattering.
Mary Cassatt's style changed throughout her career, as she moved from impressionism and experimented with various techniques. Starting in the 1890s, Mary Cassatt became an advisor to American artists as well as gallery owners, while her work slowly gained recognition in the United States. Even in old age, plagued by cataracts, diabetes, rheumatism, and neuralgia, she continued to paint and travel.
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