Brilliant, lively life of long-lived American Impressionist painter
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), by the editor of her selected letters and
author of a monograph on her (neither reviewed here). Mathews's
historical considerations of Cassatt, showing how the painter has
fared with art critics and feminist writers through the decades
since her entries were first accepted by the Paris Salon in 1872,
reveal just how surreal public and critical understanding of a
painter can be, with Cassatt seen in the guises of a half-dozen
different roles - from Victorian spinster to torch-bearing feminist
- and each rippling image seen as the real woman. Trained in
Pennsylvania and the Paris atelier of Charles Chaplin, Cassatt made
an early decision never to accept a marriage proposal, preferring
the life of the artist to that of the wife; nor, apparently, did
she ever enter into a lesbian tie, though these were not uncommon
among French painters. Cassatt was early recognized for her
forceful opinions and the intense intellectual stimulation of her
company. She led a romantic, nomadic life in France until turning
professional and taking up her own studio in Paris. She welcomed
the invitation by Degas to join the Impressionists and, though she
met few of the outstanding members of that group, enjoyed matching
wits with the fast tongues of those she did meet. Cassatt gave up
her earlier melancholy, yearning, and contemplative subject matter
for the modern psychological depth of Degas and Manet. With the
waning of the Impressionists a decade later, she came into her
prime and brought an abstract originality to her sensuous
compositions of mothers and children. Her taste influenced many
major American art collections, though cataracts deprived her of
sight during her final years. Quiet but uplifting. (Kirkus Reviews)
One of the few women Impressionists, Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) had a
life of paradoxes: American born, she lived and worked in France; a
classically trained artist, she preferred the company of radicals;
never married, she painted exquisite and beloved portraits of
mothers and children. This book provides new insight into the
personal life and artistic endeavors of this extraordinary woman.
"Brilliant, lively life of long lived American
Impressionist."-Kirkus Reviews "Rich in historical and
archeological detail, thoroughgoing in its resurrection of the
contexts and conditions of Cassatt's life as an artist."-Carol
Armstrong, New York Times Book Review "Mathews informatively and
entertainingly documents Cassatt's tumultuous relations with
various members of both the American and Parisian avant-garde. . .
. An impressive biography."-Siri Huntoon, New York Newsday "A
superb piece of scholarship."-Ruth Johnstone Wales, Christian
Science Monitor "In this admirable biography, art historian Mathews
. . . presents a compelling portrait of this contradictory
woman."-Publishers Weekly "Authoritative, unsentimental, clear as a
bell, this is a model of the new biography by and about talented
women."-Kennedy Fraser "This will probably be the definitive
biography for our generation."-John Wilmerding, Princeton
University
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