Mary Cassatt once said, “There’s only one thing in life for a woman; it’s to be a mother…A woman artist must be…capable of making primary sacrifices.” Mary Stevenson Cassatt was born on May 22, 1844 in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. Her father was a highly respected real estate and investment broker, and this resulted in her family’s high social class. Her schooling provided an opportunity for her to become a proper wife and mother. She took multiple classes in areas such as homemaking, embroidery and music. Even though women during her time were discouraged from pursuing a career, Mary Cassatt did not let that stop her (Mary Cassatt, para 1-2).
At age 16, she enrolled in Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. She eventually left
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the academy because of the slow pace of the curriculum, and her fellow students’ disapproval of her attendance. The academy was mainly composed of male students. After leaving the academy, Mary went to Paris in 1866 despite her family’s lack of support. Her career began there. She took private art lessons, and she began to study and remake masterpieces. In 1868, one of her paintings was chosen to be exhibited in the Paris Salon. This very prestigious exhibition was run by the French government (Mary Cassatt, para 3-4). A couple of years later, when the Franco-Prussian War broke out, Mary returned home. The artistic freedom that she once enjoyed was gone. Her father highly disapproved of her art work, and refused to pay for anything connected to it. She also had trouble finding important supplies. She went to places such as New York and even Chicago to try to sell her paintings, but she was unsuccessful. In 1871, while in Chicago, her beloved paintings were destroyed in a fire. Even though she was grateful for the Paris Salon, she began to drift away from that style of painting. She drew inspiration from a famous Impressionist painter, Edgar Degas (Mary Cassatt, para 4-5). Mary used to go to a window where his paintings were on display.
She once wrote this to a friend, “I used to go and flatten my nose against that window and absorb all I could of his art. It changed my life. I saw art then as I wanted to see it.” Mary’s admiration of Degas eventually formed a very strong friendship. She eventually began to work with the Impressionist painters. In one show, she exhibited 11 of her own paintings. She was also one of only two women to work with the Impressionists (Cassatt, pg. 1). Even though many Impressionists focused on landscapes and street scenes, Mary focused on women in everyday settings. Mothers with children were her primary focus. Mary did not have any children, but she was able to portray the love of a mother with a child in her paintings (Mary Cassatt, para 6-7).
The Child’s Bath is one of Cassatt’s masterworks. This work uses many different devices such as bold patterns and outlines, and a perspective that is leveled. The bold patterns play off one another and center on the nakedness of the child, whose white legs are as straight as the lines of the woman’s striped dress. The high point allows the viewer to observe, but not be involved in, this affectionate scene. This masterwork again focuses on Cassatt’s main subject, the tender love of a woman with a child (The Child’s Bath, para
1) Another one of Cassatt’s masterworks is Little Girl in Blue Armchair. In this painting, Cassatt showcases a young girl. The young girl is sprawled out in a blue chair; the sleeping dog is near her in the next chair. Even though the young girl is the focus of the composition, Cassatt placed her off-center. Since her work was greatly influenced by Japanese prints, she used many patterns and asymmetric designs. One example of this is the pattern that the armchairs form in the middle of the picture. They encircle an unusually shaped patch of gray floor. This work was similar to Japanese art (Little Girl in a Blue Armchair, para 1-2). Susan Comforting the Baby is also another one of Cassatt’s great works. The painting has a radical composition and there are a wide range of brush strokes. Some are smooth; others are sketchy and dynamic. The variety of brush strokes enhances the intimacy of an everyday scene. It is just like today, a child is upset or hurt and the first person he or she wants to run to is his or her mother. Cassatt captured this painting beautifully (Cassatt, pg. 1). Cassatt’s most famous painting is The Boating Party. In “The Boating Party,” the focus is again on one of Cassatt’s favorite subjects, a mother and a child. Many parts of the painting direct a person’s attention to the face of the child. The man’s arm and the boat’s oar form a “V” that points to the child’s face. Also, the angle of the mother’s hat and rounded edge of the boat focuses on the child. It is almost like Cassatt makes a person feel as though they are a part of “The Boating Party (The Boating Party, para 2).” In 1910, Mary took a trip to Egypt with her brother, Gardner, and his family. This trip became a turning point in her life and career. After taking a look at the incredible ancient art, she began to question her own talent as an artist. When she returned her, her brother died suddenly from an illness he got during the trip. After these events, Cassatt was physically and emotional wounded. She didn’t paint again until 1912. In 1915, she had to completely give up painting. Diabetes led to the loss of her vision. For the next 11 years, “Mary Cassatt lived in almost total blindness, bitterly unhappy to be robbed of her greatest source of pleasure.” She died on June 14, 1926, in France (Mary Cassatt, para 12-13).
Annie Turnbo Malone was an entrepreneur and was also a chemist. She became a millionaire by making some hair products for some black women. She gave most of her money away to charity and to promote the African American. She was born on august 9, 1869, and was the tenth child out of eleven children that where born by Robert and Isabella turnbo. Annie’s parents died when she was young so her older sister took care of her until she was old enough to take care of herself.
...t way, like Varley’s 1930 Vera, she remains a mystery, a forgotten artist, best known for he work as a muse, model, and wife. It is often wondered what kind of work she would have done if she had remained single mindedly focused on her art like the famous Emily Carr
When that room is entered all voices are hushed, and all merriment silenced. The place is as holy as a church. In the centre of the canvas is the Virgin Mother with a young, almost girlish face or surpassing loveliness. In her eyes affection and wonder are blended, and the features and the figure are the most spiritual and beautiful in the world's art.
During the 1940s and 1950s women artists were not always appreciated and seen as polished educated women artist. As an inspiring painter, printmaker and art teacher Florence McClung accomplished many awards in her life time, faced a difficult period of discrimination towards women artist, and faced exclusion by printmaker companies. On the other hand, McClung did not let anything impede her great achievements.
She combined her own skills with the symbolism of a mother and child theme and with flattened oriented aesthetics which resulted in one of her prints called “Maternal Caress”. Cassatt has bought Japanese prints by Kitagawa Utamaro (1753–1806) and displayed them in her home alongside her own work. Cassatt awareness was of the Japanese aesthetics was clearly shown in the same kind of print by Utamaro, “Midnight: Mother and Sleepy Child.”. Cassatt portrayal of women and children together depicted a women’s true form but also implied to the sexual life not through sexuality but through the nineteenth century socially accepted emphasis on
The painting depicts a mother and her four children, who are all leaning on her as she looks down solemnly, her tired, despondent expression suggests she felt trapped in her roles as being a mother and a wife. The woman and her children are clearly the focal point of the artwork as the bright colours used to paint them stand out impeccably against the dull, lifeless colours of the background. This painting appears to be centred around the ideology that women are home-keepers, whose main role is to satisfy and assist her husband while simultaneously minding the children and keeping the home tidy and ready for his return. The social consequences of this artwork could have been that the woman could have been berated for not taking pleasure out of being a mother and raising her children, as a woman should. She could have been made redundant as her husband may have felt as though she is no longer useful if she couldn’t adequately adhere to her roles as a mother and a
The painting is intimate, almost as if was not meant for the eyes of the viewer. The mother gently holds the baby, within her arms, as she feeds him. The mother’s gaze is met by the child as it reaches out to touch her face. The background is simple, emphasizing the closeness between the mother and child, much like Le Brun’s piece. Additionally, Cassatt’s The Child's Bath, 1893 “with its striking and unorthodox composition, is one of Cassatt’s masterworks” (“The Child's Bath”). Within this composition, she employed the use of unconventional devices such as cropped forms, bold patterns and outlines, and a flattened perspective (“The Child's Bath”). Cassatt utilizes a pastel-like color scheme, exemplifying the delicateness and tenderness between the mother and her bathing child. Her brush strokes are swift and gentle, again, suggesting the passionate, yet soft, love the mother has for her child. The elevated vantage point invites the viewer to observe this intimate moment, but not to
Adèle Ratignolle uses art to beautify her home. Madame Ratignolle represents the ideal mother-woman (Bloom 119). Her chief concerns and interests are for her husband and children. She was society’s model of a woman’s role. Madame Ratignolle’s purpose for playing the pia...
The painting can be found at the Washington’s National Art Gallery. Further, this artwork is an important piece of art created during her mature career. Cassatt depicts the young girl alone within a domestic exterior. The informal posture, as well as the evident brushwork, are attributed to impressionism while the asymmetrical structure, the hasty scene cropping, and the shallow space indicate the Japanese art inspirations. Additionally, the young girl seated in an unselfconscious and sprawling manner is a reminder to the viewer of her young age
Mary Cassatt was most widely known for her impressionist pieces that depicted mother (or nanny) and child. She was faced with many struggles throughout her life and received much criticism, even after her death in 1926. She found it difficult to receive appropriate recognition for her pieces during her early career. Many were unaccepted by the Salon. Cassatt lived for many years in France after her successful career, which ended abruptly when she went blind. Her talent placed her pieces in many famous museums throughout the world and landed her name among the famous artists of her time. As well as paving the way for powerful women, like herself. She lived during a time of suffragettes searching for equality.
The painting, in its simplest form, consists of a naked woman lying elegantly upon stately and rich cloths, while a young, also nude boy, is holding a mirror which contains her reflection. Upon first glance of this work, I was quickly able to make out the identity of the two subjects. ...
In the painting Beside the River by Agnes Gardener King (Book 1, p. 22) the girl portrays the Romantic view of childhood which sees a child as an innocent and guiltless. That approach is mainly observed in Victorian fine art and book illustrations. Like the girl in the painting, romantic view looks for the goodness in the child. The white dress, the girl, the tress and lamb are symbols of the innocence. The painting looks peaceful, the colours are calm; the girl walks slowly and smiles gently. That type of image was the main massage of the Romantic discourse of childhood. The concept was greatly influenced by the eighteenth-century French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), who wrote a book ‘Emile’ which became one of the most important textbooks of French ...
During the feminist movement women sought to gain gender equality and they turned to art to get their message out there. Feminist art set the bar higher for women so they can be seen more equal to men. It redefined the way women were seen and gained them a lot more power in the world. Women were able to use feminist art to be able to show the world that they were just as capable of being successful artists just like men were. Artist like Judy Chicago help set ideas of gender equality become a reality. “Inspired by the women 's movement and rebelling against the male-dominated art scene of the 1960s.” (the art story). Judy Chicago stood for women being equal to men and fought against how men were the ones in charge of the world. She used her art as a weapon to combat gender equality. Many other artists like Chicago used their art to fight gender equality. Feminist art helped explore ideas of gender equality and exchanged it around the world. Her art served as a way of breaking societal expectation by incorporating controversial
During the Renaissance, the Virgin Mary was prevalent theme throughout this period where artists such as: Fra Angelico, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Bothicellical and Perugino were inspired to paint the Virgin Mary. The paintings show a motherly pleasant looking women holding or caring for her child. The paints are capturing the Mary as a human but giving her a divine appearance. The child being Christ shows her power by giving birth to him and by caring for the Son of God. In essence providing love, caring, and protection for the young child of God. For example, plate 15 and frame 23, these plates show a compassionate caring mother that is humanistic in depiction but larger or more encompassing of the painting than the Christ child. This is implying her importance in the early life of Christ. This also shows the power or her earthly influence over the child even though she is a human and not a deity. This gives her a special place in the church as the earthly Mother that is the most perfect of humans, other than Christ.
Rossetti’s use of repetition emphasizes the idea that the artist is able to set expectations for women by controlling who they are, what they do, and what they feel by recreating them through art. Rossetti shows us a woman who is repeatedly being depicted in the artist’s paintings. Repetition of the word “one” (1,2,8) conveys a sense of homogenization: many women