I admired Manet, Courbet, and Degas. I hated conventional art--I began to live.
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I admired Manet, Courbet, and Degas. I hated conventional art--I began to live. |
| --Mary Cassatt | |
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Mary Cassatt's paintings and graphics
depict the world of nineteenth-century women, mothers, and children. Her exploration
of intimate domestic life is informed by an unsurpassed ability to capture the
natural, sometimes awkward poses of her figures. She avoided appealing to sentimentality
by refusing to "prettify" her
subjects, instead employing natural expressions and un-idealized models. Little
Girl in a Blue Armchair
represents the characteristic restless posture of a child in an oversized, adult
chair, captured in a composition that is remarkable for its brilliant color
and striking design.
About the Artist Mary Cassatt was born into an affluent family in Pennsylvania on May 22, 1844. She studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, one of the country's leading art schools. In addition to having regular exhibitions of European and American art, the faculty at the Academy encouraged students to study abroad. In 1865 Cassatt approached her parents with the idea of studying in Paris. Her father, a conservative banker, was not enthusiastic; he said he would almost rather see her dead. Despite their initial objections, Cassatt's parents relented and allowed her to go. In Paris, Cassatt attended classes in the studios of the academic artists Jean Léon Gérôme and Thomas Couture. She also traveled extensively in Europe studying and copying old master paintings. In 1874 she settled permanently in Paris, where her work was regularly shown at the Salon, the annual government-sponsored exhibition. The following year she saw the pastel work of Edgar Degas, one of the leaders of the Impressionist movement, in a gallery window. Years later, Cassatt described the importance of this experience, "I used to go and flatten my nose against the window and absorb all I could of his art. It changed my life. I saw art then as I wanted to see it." The Impressionists Degas first saw and admired Cassatt's work at the Salon, and in 1877 he invited her to join the Impressionists; she was the only American who ever exhibited in the avant-garde group's shows. She later explained the exhilaration of that moment. "At last I could work with absolute independence without considering the opinion of a jury. I had already recognized who were my true masters. I admired Manet, Courbet, and Degas. I hated conventional art--I began to live." Degas and Cassatt became close friends and, although the relationship was sometimes volatile, the older artist's powerful influence can be observed in her choice of subjects and media. Cassatt's friendship, in turn, led Degas to explore subjects from the lives of contemporary women such as images of milliners and shop girls. Cassatt had her first solo show in 1891 at the well-known Durand-Ruel Gallery in Paris. Cassatt's failing eyesight caused her to abandon painting after 1911, but she continued to work hard to encourage the collecting and purchase of Impressionist paintings in America. The magnificent holdings of nineteenth-century French paintings in major American museums is due in no small part to her tireless efforts. By the time of her death in 1926, Mary Cassatt was acknowledged as one of the great American artists of the nineteenth century. Historical and Artistic Context Cassatt was one of a relatively small number of American women to become professional artists in the nineteenth century when most women, particularly wealthy ones, did not pursue a career. Her decision to study abroad reflects the strong character she displayed throughout her career. When Cassatt settled in Paris, an artistic revolution was already underway in France. Changes were occurring in the way that artists showed their work to the public, and in the freedom artists had to choose their own subjects and styles. Cassatt's career developed against the backdrop of these changes. Contemporary Subjects In the nineteenth century many artists were experimenting with subjects that formerly had been considered minor or unacceptable. Inspired by the realist imagery of painters Gustave Courbet and Édouard Manet, and the writings of Emile Zola and Gustave Flaubert, young artists rejected the conventional idea that serious painting had to illustrate a strong underlying moral or ethical theme. Instead they chose to record the world as they viewed it, depicting their surroundings and contemporary life in the city and countryside. Mary Cassatt's images of women and of children are a part of this broad movement in art and literature to represent aspects of everyday life in the second half of the nineteenth century. A new approach to painting paralleled this emphasis on contemporary subjects. Academic artists had used a sober palette, with a variety of neutral and dark tones. They applied their paint in carefully blended brushstrokes that resulted in a widely-admired, smooth, enamel-like surface. The Impressionists believed that bright colors and broad, obvious brushstrokes were more appropriate in conveying the shimmering effects of outdoor light, and in capturing the immediacy of everyday life. Cassatt painted her early Salon submissions in the darker tones of the old masters, but under the influence of the Impressionists, her palette brightened noticeably. Little Girl in a Blue Armchair Cassatt painted this canvas shortly after she first came into contact with the Impressionists. In fact, Little Girl in a Blue Armchair may have appeared in the 1879 exhibition under the title Portrait of a Young Girl. The brilliant color and bold, loosely handled brushstrokes are characteristic of her work at this time. Note the confident brushwork in the foreground chairs and in the little girl's outfit. Details of texture are not meticulously defined, but instead are suggested by the rapidly applied brushstrokes. The immediacy suggested by the handling of the surface is accentuated by the novelty of the composition. The focus of the painting, the little girl, is placed daringly off-center. Cassatt's interest in Japanese woodblock prints is responsible for this asymmetric design as well as the strong two-dimensional surface patterns. Degas had introduced Cassatt to the exotic Japanese art that had begun to enter Paris in the 1860s. Many artists were influenced by the dramatic non-western perspective, strong colors, and arbitrary cropping found in the inexpensive woodblock prints. The impact of Asian art on nineteenth-century painting is evident in the way part of each chair is deliberately sheared off at the frame. Degas himself played an active role in the evolution of this painting. As Cassatt later wrote to an art dealer, "It was the portrait of a child of a friend of Monsieur Degas. I had done the child in the armchair and he found it good and advised me on the background and he even worked on it." It is generally accepted that Degas painted the gray floor and windows, areas that differ in texture from the rest of the work. |
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