The Story of Art Without Men

by Katy Hessel

The American-born artist Mary Cassatt (1844–1926) was the only non-European associated with the core Impressionists. Showing her work at four of the eight Impressionist exhibitions (the first in 1879), Cassatt was one of the group’s leading figures. A Japanese print exhibition at the École des Beaux-Arts, which she attended in 1890, would prove a great influence on her art in its everyday subject matter, vibrant colours and flat-planed forms. Fortunate in having a supportive mother who accompanied her on her trips to Europe and encouraged her to pursue an artistic career, Cassatt studied in Pennsylvania and arrived in Paris in 1866. Escaping to the French capital was popular among American women artists; the city offered them vast opportunities compared to the strictures of home. Out of the 1,000 or so American artists living there at that time, one-third were thought to be women. Working in a distinctly loose, gestural style (one contemporary commentator noted her portraits were a ‘symphony of colour’), Cassatt painted charming, intimate scenes featuring children and women of all ages caught in the moment: mothers teaching their daughters to read or sew; a pre-adolescent girl immersed in her book or gazing lovingly at her dog. Like Morisot, she gives us a glimpse of the private worlds of women but, I find, in particular she emphasised women’s intellect and learning.