My Kid Could Paint That

Mary Cassatt, Modern Woman, 1893

Mary Cassatt was best known as an Impressionist painter whom painted various domestic scenes of women and children and continued to challenge the themes of female subservience. While living in France, Woman’s Building director, Bertha Palmer coerced Cassatt to paint Modern Woman. The Woman’s Building shared a rejection towards not only female inferiority, but also how these reoccurring views were greatly internalized by Gilded Age women. The building was later pulled down and Cassatt’s mural was lost. Alas, some photographs of the mural were taken and colored prints made, filled with bright pinks, greens, gold and purples.

Modern Woman was hung above the entrance of the Gallery of Honor in the Women’s Building at the Columbian Exposition and World Fair. In the center portion of the mural there are “young women plucking the fruits of knowledge of science”(Doss 31). This highlights the essentials of the modern woman to include an emphasis on education and a strong female community. The left panel includes three young women reaching for “fame.” Fame is seen as a floating nude female who disregards the conventional constraints of society, similar to the theme present in Sargent’s Portrait of Madame X. The right panel depicts three young women indulging in music and dancing. All subjects are located in a garden-like setting, similar to the Garden of Eden, a symbol of female sin and fertility. 

The mural did not truly embody the modernist ideals of a fully integrated and unrestricted society; however, Modern Women did stress a value for higher education and female unity. Cassatt’s painting wasn’t extremely radical, but subtly dissident. Cassatt’s work never greatly influenced contemporary art, but, this piece foreshadowed America’s first school of modern artists with its audacious colors and credible modern figures.

Mary Cassatt, Margot in Blue, 1902

Mary Cassatt, an American Impressionist painter, was known for her paintings depicting mother and child bonds and the lives of upper class women. I found her story similar to Edith Wharton's in that they both came from wealthy families who warned their respective daughters about a career in writing or art. Such occupations were certainly not a path for women of their class. Cassatt's father even said he would rather see his daughter dead than living abroad as a "bohemian." I greatly appreciate Wharton and Cassatt's dedication and passion that led them to be amazing influential women of their time.

Margot in Blue is a beautiful and charming portrait of a young girl in quite the extravagant bonnet. This hat is about four times the size of her face and gives off kind of an eskimo vibe, but I guess this is what Daddy's money could buy at the time. The girl looks tremendously pleased with her outfit and sits poised and with confidence. Cassatt uses pastel (influenced by Degas) and a bright palette. The background is solid and dull in contrast to the brightly-colored subject.

Mary Cassatt, Girl in the Garden, 1880

Cassatt The Boating Party 1893-1894

In the 1890s Japanese art flowed into Paris. Exhibits displayed the block uses of color and the simplicity of designs, a nice breath of uncomplicated air from the impressionists shows. Cassatt enjoyed these exhibitions and took these techniques to her own art. This piece is a transition from her other more impressionistic pieces with fluid brush strokes, such as Tea painted earlier in 1880.

Cassatt, Tea, 1880

At the point in her career when she would have painted Tea, she was studying next to Degas and took to more formal situations with woman with scenes such as this, outdoors with children, while women are getting ready (fully clothed and out of the bathtub, unlike Monsieur Degas). The lines on the walls in Tea are less stressed and the color palette is clearly lighter compared to The Boating Party, where Cassatt goes as far as to almost create a shade of black, secretly forbidden by the impressionists.

After The Boating Party, Cassatt furthered her exploration of Japanese art and produced pieces such as Under the Horse Chestnut in 1898. The transformation of these three paintings show her progression in her career away from classic Impressionism. In Under the Horse Chestnut the block color look and light color palete is displayed. There is no depth, just strong, bland colors and lines that force you to focus on the shapes of the characters. Her clothing and her arms are done beautifully and her study of women with Degas shows through those aspects as she removes the shadows and colors, and the baby's body is also beautifully done with this new style as well.

Cassatt, Under the Horse Chestnut, 1898

I chose to focus on the middle transition piece because it shows her master of both Impressionist art and the beginnings of her Japanese influence. Her water is still smooth, but the man's coat and the boat begin to show the blocks of color, and the darkness of the man surprised many because, as I said before, black was never the choice color of impressionist painters, and this was a risky move and told viewers that Cassatt was in the process of going in a different direction.

The new direction took Cassatt on world adventures and finally to Egypt in 1910. There she saw true historical art and had an "art crisis," where she had a freak out about creating new art when the old art she was seeing near the pyramids and other artifacts. This forced her to question her art, and she remained in her "art crisis" but kept painting until 1914 when she went blind and had to put up her paint brushes.

Cassatt, Women with a Pearl Necklace in a Loge, 1879

One of Cassatt's most noted works, Women With a Pearl Necklace in a Loge depicts what is said to be her sister, Lidia, at the Paris opera house in a private box. The style of this piece is normal of Cassatt's impressionist side with the light brush strokes and casual lines that make the piece laid back and less formal of a piece for the quite formal occasion. Her high class is obvious and demonstrated by her seat at the opera and her clothes with her playful fan, dress, and flowers.

Formal scenes and domestic images were mostly Cassatt's subjects because she was a woman artist. Although she came from wealth, her father refused to support her artistic career and would only pay for her living expenses and not her art supplies or classes, which after the Pennsylvania School of Fine Arts her classes became sparse when she moved to Paris because women couldn't participate in the academies. Because of this, Cassatt found herself working in private studios with some of the greatest talent. She favored, of course, Degas' private studio time (though nothing romantic, with Degas' purely visual sexual behavior). After training with some of the Impressionist masters, she began working in these domestic scenes, or outings in which women could attend, such as this painting.  

Cassatt paints her at intermission and looking at her from her box seat, the viewer sees the rest the audience in the background, making this piece essentially addressing the audience as the performers. The show itself is at a pause and Cassatt takes a moment to capture the audience in action from the perspective of standing on the stage, looking up at her sister and the mirror image of the entire crowd. The reflection is done pretty well I'd say. Cassatt removes herself from the reflection, even though she would be seeing herself in the mirror as well from this view. She does this to further illuminate the audience as the performers and call attention to their act while they gather to watch the ballet. The viewers of a certain class int eh box seats must come to the ballet with a casual and elegant attitude, like Lidia displays, and be with friends and only concerned with themselves as Cassatt shows in the other boxes and by removing herself.    

Mary Cassatt, Little Girl in a Blue Armchair, 1878

It's not your traditional children's portrait. Instead, Mary Cassatt's Little Girl in a Blue Armchair depicts a more realistic alternative to a traditional portrait. Sitting still for more than thirty minutes is a serious challenge for anyone, especially children, thus sitting as still as a statue for hours must have seemed ridiculous. This makes for a stiff portraiture, one that's boring for both the subject and the viewer. Cassatt, instead, decides to paint her subject as she really was: a normal kid.

Mary Cassatt, Mother and Child, 1905

"Mother is the name for god in the lips and hearts of little children." -William Makepeace Thackeray

Mary Cassatt, Lydia Leaning on Her Arms, Seated in Loge, 1879