Mary Cassatt: A Feminist Analysis

Personally, I do not know how should I think about feminism appropriately or what is the ideal way to think about this word. Since there are no significant differences between male and female, except physical aspects, the inequality between females and male has remained for several thousand years. it is necessary for human beings in contemporary society to think about this issue seriously because females have to voice for themselves and discriminations have to be eliminated progressively.

From time to time, I heard some expressions so radical that I really question the meaning and the purpose of feminism. For instance, in Modernity and Modernism, Tamar Garb criticizes Renoir’s painting, Maternity, or Woman Nursing her Child, with the words

that I think it is inaccurate and excessive. “In Renoir, the focal points are the exposed breast of the woman and the sex of the male child, and these construct the act of breastfeeding as a form of erotic display” (Garb 267). From my point of view, Renoir just captures the moment of a mother nursing her little boy. She might be aware of the presence of the painter, and she feels a little bit of uncomfortable because someone is witnessing and reproducing this private moment. The scenario and feelings of the mother are extremely common in daily life. Thus, I do not think it is reasonable to ascribe the exposed breast of the woman as a form of the sexual display because the painting is produced by a male.
Mary Cassatt, as a female and feminist artist, wins high praise in the public, for she is skilled at constructing the physical engagement of the mother and the child on the canvases. According to Garb, Cassatt’s physical characteristics as a female “[empowers] to look herself, and to represent the female look in its socially legitimated domain” (270). In the meantime, Cassatt writes in a letter to express appreciation of her biological sex: “the sweetness of childhood, the charm of womanhood, if I have not conveyed some sense of that charm, in one word if I have not been absolutely feminine, then I have failed” (AIT 929). To some extent, Mary Cassatt achieved her success by virtues of her innate strengths, as well as her competence.
When I walk around in Philadelphia Museum of Art, I spend more time to look at the paintings made by Mary Cassatt. Then, I am impressed by one of her paintings, Portrait of Alexander J. Cassatt and His Son, Robert Kelso Cassatt. Different from her usual subjects of the mother and the child, in this painting, Cassatt focuses on the relationship between a father and a son. From my point of view, it seems like she tries to construct a harmonious intimacy intentionally. The father and son are closely sitting together on an armchair. Their heads are right next to each other. The dark colors of their clothes are merged together. The identical reddish face, brown hair, and their expressions indicate their biological connections. However, the child’s arm around his father is questionable. Why does the child have his arm around the shoulder of his father, while his father still reads his book or newspaper? Why does not the father hold his child in his arm and why does he look so emotionless? Moreover, compared with the expression of the father, the dissociative eyesight of the little boys seems like he dissatisfies with something. Maybe he is displeased by his father’s attention on somewhere else. In Mary Cassatt’s paintings of maternal subjects, mothers usually are the people who hold their children in arms, and their eyes always follow their children. Compared with Cassatt’s usual subjects, Portrait of Alexander J. Cassatt and His Son, Robert Kelso Cassatt is lack of intimacy. Although two individuals in the painting are physically attached to each other, there are little affective communications between them.
Mary Cassatt is a childless woman because, from her point of view, “[after] all a woman’s vocation in life is to bear children” (MAM 270).

Therefore, she forms a complicated, personal relationship with children. Why does she so obsess with motherhood, while she does not even have one child? In a certain degree, I think children are certain forms of a weapon for Mary Cassatt to substantiate her uncompromising feminism. On the other hand, concerning her superior social position and biological sex, it might easier for her to observe motherhood, to reproduce the sincere motherhood. However, she has not been male, and then she is unable to experience another kind of connection between a father and a son as well. Even though she can imagine that by herself, it would never be exactly the same. Thus, it would probably be difficult for her and any other females, to reproduce this different relationship whereby it explain the awkwardness in the portrait she makes for her brother and

nephew.
Moreover, the painting, the same as many of Cassatt’s paintings, is about the interior setting.

The significant difference is two individuals in the portrait are males. On the other hand, it is rarely to see the portrait of father and son appearing in the same frame throughout the history of western art. In most of the portraits, fathers are serious and alone. In the 19th century France, women are concerned with the realms of their activities, men are free to go anywhere they want in the whole day. Based on Garb’s description, the theater is the few places women are able to go for entertainment. For the rest of their time, they have to stay in the private sphere because of conventional ideology. For the males in the patriarchal society, they are eager to exemplify their ambitions and masculinity in the public spaces. From their point of view, home is the assigned setting for women. Wives and children, sometimes, are equal to the tools of manifesting their power and social status.

In a certain degree, because of males’ stereotypical ideas, Cassatt uses this portrait to persuade the males to return to the family. Families are not only about females and children, but also necessary to males.

In the Portrait of Alexander J. Cassatt and His Son, Robert Kelso Cassatt, although the father returns home with accompany of his son, he still concentrates on the book or newspaper in his hands. He does not care about the left arm placed around his shoulder. In the contrast, the expression

of his son is even more frustrated. Therefore, Cassatt

活动范围！回归家庭 why the father is detached from his son
I do not think it is really necessary to know the gender of the artists, before seeing the painting. In terms of formal analysis, originality of the painter is one of the essential elements in considering a work of art. Originality, from Castagnary’s point of view, is “ to offer a (relatively) faithful representation of the material origins of perception and experience in the actual world” (Harrison 146). In the eyes of the avant-garde artists and critics, the representations of subjective emotions on the canvas are much more important than any other concern. In my opinion, although the roles of gender might affect the presentation of subjective emotions, it is one of the characteristics of originality as well because of its subjectiveness. While males are the dominant roles in the history of western art, experiences and emotions expressed by females themselves are more distinctive and unique in contemporary society. In the 19th century France, based on Garb’s point of view, it is difficult for females to reverse the stereotype, to paint the subjects they want, and to establish their own style of painting. However, in the contemporary age, everybody is welcome to express his or her own point of view. Genders, therefore, are less essential in considering a work of art. Therefore, I strongly disagree with the classification of male artists and female artists. In the realm of art, there are only good artists and the artists who are not competent enough.