Mary Cassatt (1844 - 1926)

Précis

Mary Cassatt was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. The daughter of a wealthy family, she was able to travel to Europe at a young age. From age 16 to 21, she studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and then went to Paris to continue her training, studying under Jean Léon Gérôme. In 1868, her painting La Mandoline was accepted by the Salon. She lived and worked most of her life in Europe, and was one of the core members of the Impressionist movement (although you can see below her comment on that label).

Excerpts from Mary Cassatt's Letters (source)

Mary Cassatt to Rose Lamb, 30 November 1892

"One thing I have learned, the absolute necessity for system in painting. Prepare your palette. ... Delacroix had a most elaborate palett & it is very evident the old masters had & did not indulge in one happy go lucky style."

La Toilette, o/c, 1893, The Art Institute of Chicago
Image courtesy of Mark Harden's Artchive

Mary Cassatt to Harrison Morris, 15 March 1904

[editor's note: said when refusing an award from the Pennsylvania Academy]

"I, however, who belong to the founders of the Independent Exhibition must stick to my principles, our principles, which were, no jury, no medals, no awards. Out first exhibition was held in 1879 and was a protest against official exhibitions and not a grouping of artists with the same art tendencies. We have been since dubbed 'Impressionists' a name which might apply to Monet but can have no meaning when attached to Degas' name.
    Liberty is the first good in this world and to escape the tyranny of a jury is worth fighting for, surely no profession is so enslaved as ours."

Mary Cassatt to Carl Snyder, 21 April 1904

"I will quote you a saying of Degas -- 'Il faut s'incliner devant les Primitives, car ils ont tout fait' -- One thing though which is required of us they did not have, each artist a distinct technique and personality--" [roughly trans: "We must bow before the Primitives, for they have done everything."]

Mary Cassatt to John W. Beatty, 5 September 1905

"It is so long ago that I had the pleasure of meeting you in Paris that you may have forgotten the conversation we had at that time. I then tried to explain to you my ideas, principles I ought to say, in regard to jurys of artists, I have never served because I could never reconcile it to my conscience to be the means of shutting the door in the face of a fellow painter. I think the jury system may lead, & in the case of the Exhibitions at the Carnegie Institute no doubt does lead to a high average, but in art what we want is the certainty that the one spark of original genius shall not be extinguished, that is better than average excellence, that is what will survive, what it is essential to foster--"

Mary Cassatt to Ellen Mary Cassatt, 26 March 1913

[editor's note: when asked about the new cubist movement]

"No Frenchman of any standing in the art world has ever taken any of these things seriously. As to Matisse, one only has to see his early works to understand him. His pictures were extremely feeble in execution and very commonplace in vision. As he is intelligent, he saw that real excellence, which would bring him consideration, was not for him on that line." ...
    "The misunderstanding in art has arisen from the fact that forty years ago -- to be exact thirty-nine years ago -- when Degas and Monet, Renoir and I first exhibited, the public did not understand, only the 'élite' bought and time has proved their knowledge. Though the Public in those days did not understand, the artists did. ... Now the Public say -- the foreign public -- Degas and the others were laughed at; well, we will be wiser than they."