Mary Cassatt

In the late 19th century, American artist Mary Cassatt built a strong reputation on both sides of the Atlantic as an avant-garde painter, pastelist, and printmaker. Cassatt grounded her works in figuration while also investigating compositional elements such as color, form, line, and medium. Her boldly rendered portrayals of women engaged in everyday activities, including caring for children, especially garnered acclaim. They were recognized then and are still today as sensitive, vibrant interpretations of modern life.

Born in present-day Pittsburgh, Cassatt pursued a professional career at a time when women faced considerable obstacles in the art world. She enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts at age 16 and five years later traveled to Europe to continue her studies, settling in Paris in 1874. In 1877 Cassatt joined the French Impressionists, also known as the Independents, becoming a key member of this rebellious cohort and the only American to exhibit with the group. The Impressionists upended traditional models of art making and marketing, turning away from the state-sponsored Paris Salon, where academically trained artists established their reputations. In the late 1880s through the early 1900s, Cassatt continued her experimental work, expanding her exploration of mothers and caretakers with children, creating complex color prints, and undertaking an unprecedented mural commission for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

In her role as an art adviser, Cassatt stewarded the development of US collections. She was instrumental in the Art Institute’s acquisition of El Greco’s Assumption of the Virgin in 1906, having corresponded directly with the museum’s president Charles L. Hutchinson about the opportunity. Just four years later, in 1910, the museum purchased its first work by Cassatt, The Child’s Bath, which has become an icon of the collection. The Art Institute of Chicago organized the groundbreaking retrospective Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman in 1998–99 and the major exhibition Mary Cassatt: After Impressionism in 2026–27.