Mary Cassat

Mary Cassatt
Mary Cassatt attended Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. During her time, most women were discouraged to have a career in art or anything for the matter. Her father completely objected to her career choice, but she insisted anyways. At the age of 22, (1866) she travel to Europe to study with European painters without her father's approval. She decided to live abroad in Europe to study with artists, but her father declared that he would "rather see his daughter dead than to live abroad as a 'bohemian.'" despite all the hatred that she received from her father as well as the public, she continued in her career choice and became very successful at it. She was invited by Edgar Degas to join the group of impressionists, becoming a prominent figure in the Impressionism Era. She began using pastels and created more saturated colors by making strokes and criss crossing them along for optical facilitation, which creates an "impressionistic" style. Unfortunately, people like Henry Bacon, a friend of the Cassatts believed that impressionists were extremists and have some sort of ailment in their eyes; however, they became more well-known and highly recognized for their works.

Cassatt managed to deal with the hatred of society and did not let it hinder her work in any anyway, but rather utilized it as motivation. It was the hatred that fueled her inspiration to become a succesful artist.

Cassatt's works mostly consist of portraits of a mother and child despite the fact that she never got married nor had any children. I believe this reflects her ideology of women's importance in society and it may reflect the need for women to proliferate; thus, it shows the utmost importance and reliance that society does have on women, which I believe was Cassatt's idea and motive as a painter.