Mary Cassatt is often thought of today as a sentimental painter because of her numerous touching scenes of mothers and children. But if you look more closely, you'll discover the real Mary Cassatt, one of the French Impressionists, a modernist pioneer, and, a thoroughly modern 19th century woman who actively supported the women's suffrage movement..

In 1879, she accepted an invitation to show her paintings with the Impressionists. She emerged as a key member of the Impressionist Movement. Her paintings of 19th century women not only celebrated the nurturing role of women and their relationship with children, but she also painted scenes of 19th century women attending the opera, visiting friends and taking tea.

Mary Cassatt was one of two women who exhibited with the Impressionists, the other being French painter Berthe Morisot. French journalist, art critic and novelist Gustave Geffroy included Mary Cassatt among "Les Trois Grandes Dames" of French Impressionism alongside French artists Marie Bracquemond and Berthe Morisot.

Although Mary Cassatt was technically an American, she spent most of her life living in Paris. In 1874 at the age of 30, Mary made Paris her home for the next 52 years. She was never shy, fiercely expressing her artistic opinions.

She was highly critical of the politics surrounding the Paris Salon and the conventional tastes that dominated there. She had experienced a higher degree of criticism of her work because she was a woman and abhorred such treatment that she and other women artists received

In 1877, her two entries to the Paris Salon were rejected. For the first time in seven years, she had no paintings in the Paris Salon. This was a stressful time, a major low point in her career. Her good friend artist Edgar Degas invited her to show her paintings with the Impressionists, who had been holding their independent exhibitions since 1874. She had long admired Degas' paintings, especially his pastels, and enthusiastically accepted his invitation. Mary felt comfortable with the Impressionists, especially her new-found friend, fellow impressionist Berthe Morisot.

In later life, Mary Cassatt suffered from diabetes, rheumatism, neuralgia and cataracts. When Mary was 70 years old in 1914, she found it necessary to cease painting alltogether because she was virtually blind. She lived until 1926, dying at the age of 82. She died at her country home, Château de Beaufresne, about 65 miles northwest of central Paris.

Today her paintings reside in the collections of the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh and many other museums in America and Europe.

Last month, I wrote about the Tamara de Lempicka Exhibition, currently on view at the de Young Museum through February 9. Mary Cassatt at Work is on view through January 26 at the Legion of Honor. We recommend that you arrange a museum day when you can view both exhibitions of these Parisian women masters. The same day admission gives access to both museums and exhibitions.

Below are paintings from the exhibition, along with information gleaned from the exhibition's placards.

The Reader 1877 dates from the moment when Mary Cassatt was beginning to part ways with her classical academic training by showing signs of her new direction. When first seen from a distance, this painting appears to be not all that different from her earlier works, but close up, its rough brushy surface shows her new interest in varied texture.

Little Girl in a Blue Armchair 1878. At this time, Mary Cassatt collaborated closely with Edgar Degas. In this painting, the young daughter of a friend sits with a small dog on blue chairs, a setting heavily reworked by Degas. Cassatt submitted this painting to the American Section of the 1878 Exposition Universelle in Paris where it was rejected, due to its free paint handling and her choice of a young model slumped over, dishevelled with petticoats. Cassatt was frustrated by the rejection, but was vindicated when it was shown the following Spring at the Impressionist Exhibition in 1879.

At the Theater c1879 was first shown at Cassatt's debut with the Impressionists, an exhibition where she was given her own room. This pastel allowed Cassatt to create a powderiness and luminosity of this velvet lined opera box, a more atmospheric visual experience than Cassatt was able to achieve in her oil paintings.

Woman in a Loge 1879 is similar in theme to At the Theater, pictured above. But Woman in a Loge is done in oil, where Cassatt's textured application captures the sparkle and buzz of the audience underneath the bright house lighting. The model, Mary's younger sister Lydia, is seated in front of a mirror, a compositional element praised by critics. Other critics however found its colors garish and modern. So much for critics.

Edgar Degas created this portrait of Mary, Mary Cassatt Seated, Holding Cards in 1880-84. By this time in the early 1880's, both artists had a deep and growing friendship, and often collaborated. Their studios were a short walk from each other and they saw each other often. They had a vibrant artistic exchange, collected each other's work and shared their experiences of modern life. In this scene, Mary Cassatt has a handful of photos, as if she is discussing them with Degas as he painted her portrait. Mary Cassatt owned this painting claiming not to have liked it, although she kept it in her studio for forty years, finally selling it in 1913.

Drawn with electric streaks of contrasting color, A Goodnight Hug, a pastel, was shown at the 1881 Impressionist exhibition where it was praised by one critic for avoiding sentimentalism while achieving a "penetrating sense of intimacy." A single line of salmon-pink pastel shows the warmth and pressure of the toddler's cheek against the woman's embrace.

Lydia Seated on a Porch, Crocheting. Lydia Cassatt 1837-1882 was diagnosed in 1879 with Bright's Disease, a degenerative kidney condition. Mary attended to many of the domestic responsibilities, caring for both Lydia and herself. Neither sister ever married. Lydia died in 1882 at 45, when Mary was 38 years old.

In December of 1884, Mary Cassatt's older brother Alexander made a surprise trip to Paris. Later in his life, Alexander was the seventh president of the Pennsylvania Railroad from 1899-1906. He was instrumental in the planning and construction of railroad tunnels into Manhattan and the building of New York's Grand Central Station. During his 1884 visit to Paris, Mary took advantage of the visit to paint Portrait of Alexander J. Cassatt and his son Robert Kelso Cassatt, a rare paternal scene of her brother. Mary noted at the time that her brother was a patient model, but her nephew wriggled about like a flea.

In Children Playing on on the Beach, Cassatt shows two young girls busy playing. In her studio, the two girls were actually one model. Mary's keen sense of observation focuses on the toddler's hands, as she coordinates working with two things at once, gripping both a shovel and bucket.

In Bathing the Young Heir, the woman is dipping her hand in a basin as she prepares to bathe her charge. Both figures are rendered in naturalistic detail, but the lower half of the painting dissolves into loose scattered strokes. The lower left corner is bare of paint. At the time, Cassatt was working on a series entitled "Set of Ten," but abandoned this painting, leaving it unfinished. In the early 20th century, Cassatt returned to some of her previously unfinished canvases, deeming them finished after all. She signed each of these unfinished paintings in a broad hand with black paint.

In 1893, Mary Cassatt was in the United States. She completed her first public commission, a monumental mural (no longer exists) which appeared at the Women's Building at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. That same year, the Durand-Ruel Gallery in Paris held an exhibition of 47 of Cassatt's pastels, prints and paintings. The Family draws inspiration from Renaissance works with depictions of the Madonna and Child.

This Portrait of Mabel S. Simpkins pastel is thought to have been a preliminary sketch for a formal commission done while Cassatt visited Boston on a North American tour. She was in the United States to enhance her reputation and drive up sales. In this sketch, the sitter's face is carefully drawn, but loose flourishes hint at her puffed sleeves. A burst of blue at her breast looks very like a media test. Cassatt's signature confirms that she considered this work finished.

The exhibition placard for Mother and Child and Mother and Two Children reads, "Following the success of her mural at the Women's Building of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Cassatt created these small round paintings for the ceiling of the Ladies' Reception Room at the lieutenant governor's office in the Pennsylvania State Capitol. Their circular format echoes the shape of celebrated Madonnas by Botticelli and Raphael, although Cassatt's scenes of motherhood are resolutely modern, featuring fashionably dressed women engaged in intimate, informal interactions with children. Cassatt ultimately withdrew from the commission; the paintings were never installed in the Capitol.

Mary Cassatt revered women's role as mother and nurturer, dedicating much of her artwork to elevating the beauty, richness and care of the relationship between mother and child, elevating its importance within society. In Maternity, Cassatt uses her brushwork and shimmering palette to elevate this tender moment. Cassatt is drawing her composition from a long tradition of Madonna and Child imagery. She uses gesture, movement and touch to update the theme, capturing this physically and emotionally engaging role of the modern woman.

In Françoise in a Round-Backed Chair, Cassatt shows her young neighbor pondering while reading a book. This is not just a painting of a young girl passing the time, this is a young girl on her way to becoming a woman. Her mind is engaged, thoughtfully, purposefully. Cassatt seems to be making the case for women to be educated, capable of achieving whatever their dreams and intellect will take them.

In January, we wrote about the unique modernist paintings by Richard Mayhew. His exhibition Richard Mayhew: Inner Terrain at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art. Springing from the Harlem Renaissance, Mayhew was a founding member of "Spiral," a black painters group in New York. Through his boldly colored canvases, Mayhew painted emotion. He would ask, "What does love look like, what color is love, what does fear look like, what color is fear?" With roots as a jazz musician, he painted landscape, not from what he saw but what he was feeling as he painted. Richard Mayhew died September 26, 2024.

In May, I wrote about the paintings by Millard Sheets at the Hilbert Museum of California Art in Orange, California. Beyond his exceptional talents as a painter, he was highly influential as a teacher and one of the major contributors to the California Scene Painting movement.

In July, on the recommendation of a gallery visitor, we drove up to Reno and back in one day, stopping long enough to visit Sagebrush and Solitude: Maynard Dixon in Nevada at the Nevada Museum of Art. Wow! Maynard Dixon introduced modernism to Western painting. His simplified compositions of shape and color were captivating and influential on many Western artists.

In November, Linda and I visited San Francisco's de Young Museum for their Tamara de Lempicka exhibition. With cool elegance and transgressive sensuality, Tamara Lempicka blended her appreciation of classic Italian Renaissance painting with cubism to create polished Art Deco portraits and highly stylized nudes. Tamara de Lempicka is on at the de Young through Feb 9, 2024.

And in this issue, I write about Mary Cassatt at Work at San Francisco's Legion of Honor. A daring American artist who came to Paris, Cassatt was keenly aware of how women were looked down upon in the art world, and after having two of her paintings rejected by the Paris Salon, she was invited by artist and friend Edgar Degas to show her paintings with the independent Impressionists. She exhibited with the Impressionists for several years, the only American given an opportunity to do so. Mary Cassatt at Work is on at the Legion of Honor through January 26.

Planning a visit to Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery? Here's a tip:
View our online collection before you visit. Call or text, telling us which paintings most interest you, and we'll have the painting(s) there when you arrive.

Our current gallery exhibit is Women in Art, Early California. Included in the exhibition are works by Sonoma County's own Grace Allison Griffith 1885-1955 and Elizabeth Hoen 1868-1955, and paintings by our Bodega Bay resident artist Linda Sorensen. Linda has also recently offered fine art prints of selected works