Morisot And Mary Cassatt: A Visual Analysis

Women have always been seen as great mothers and stupendous wives, capable of taking care of their kids, keeping the house clean and organized, and maintaining their husbands happy. Society has, for a long time, seen men as superior, as the ones with the knowledge and experience to be successful and the ones that go out to bars on Tuesday nights by themselves. Throughout the years, women have fought to be seen as smart and responsible and more than capable to even be CEO’s in a competitive world full of men. A pair of women that challenged this assumption a long time ago in their own ways are Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt. Although the public might see them as similar artists because they were both part of the Impressionist movement, Berthe

Morisot stayed between the boundaries of who she was expected to be as a woman in her time, while Mary Cassatt depicted the modern women by challenging society to free women from objectification and clichés.
In order to understand the life and paintings of both artists, we must delve into their young lives. Through here, we can see how Morisot and Cassatt had the opportunity to become artists and challenge how women were viewed in their times.
Berthe Morisot was born in Bourges, France, in 1841 and was the third daughter of an affluent family (Higonnet, 1990, p. 3). Berthe started taking art classes with her siblings from a young age and her family moved to Paris in 1852 (Higonnet, 1990, p. 4). In these classes, she was introduced to famous artists such as David, Ingres, and Chaplin (Higonnet, 1990, p. 13). However, it is important to note her parents had no reason to believe that their daughters would look for careers in painting (Higonnet, 1990, p. 15).
From a young age, Berthe fit in as a child and adolescent in Passy (Higonnet, 1990, p. 15). Here, women had defined roles, they would take care of the household and followed the fashion rules of their environment (Higonnet, 1990, p. 15). As she matured and continued to learn from experts, Berthe started looking for ways to further improve her painting and she started copying the “Old Masters” in the Louvre with her sister (Higonnet, 1990, p. 18).
Berthe had the opportunity to continuously meet revered artists and professionals at her home as her mother entertained them (Higonnet, 1990, p. 23). In 1864, Berthe and Edma, her sister, started to submit paintings to the Paris Salon while trying to advance their painting careers (Higonnet, 1990, p. 28-29). It is important to note here that in those times, it was not normal to see unmarried women walking and doing things by herself. Berthe knew this, but she got around this by doing everything with her sister (Higonnet, 1990, p. 30). Berthe and Edma spent their summers painting in the country and seaside, where it was acceptable for women to get comfortable and focus on their passions (Higonnet, 1990, p. 32). This is when Berthe started becoming a successful painter in the Salon.
On the other hand, Mary Cassatt was born in Pittsburgh in 1844 and was the daughter of an upper middle-class family (Griselda, 1998, p 280). Her father was a successful stockbroker who enjoyed moving to different geographical locations (Griselda, 1998, 280). The Cassatts did not arrive in Philadelphia as nobodies, they had connections that gave them the opportunity to join exclusive clubs, become successful, and increase their social class (Mathews, 1998). As a result, her father had the opportunity to retire in his early forties to enjoy his children and travel the world (Mathews, 1998, p. 10). Her parents moved the family to London and then Paris in 1851, motivated by improved education for their children, a “grand tour” of the world, and better medical care for Robbie, one of Mary’s siblings who was ill (Mathews, 1998, p.11).
This gave Mary the opportunity to become increasingly sophisticated while studying music, learning to draw, becoming fluent in French and German through literature, and studied a range of academic subjects (Mathews, 1998, p.11). After coming back to the United States and living in Philadelphia, she continued to study politics, literature, and had a passion for painting (Matthews, 1998, p.15). “At the age of fifteen she knew would become an artist” (Matthews, 1998, p. 15). Thanks to her background, she was a sophisticated observer while being introduced to the art scene in Philadelphia (Matthews, 1998, p.15).
At this same age, she is thought to have discontinued her studies to devote all her time to art while attending the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and studying French, Italian, and German, the languages needed to advance an art career (Matthews, 1998, p.18). While in the art academy, she and her feminine peers learned about extraordinary artists who had been women (Mathews, 1998, p. 20). “They had suffered enough of their male colleagues’ patronizing jabs to understand that women artists faced persistent skepticism in the pursuit of their goals, but nevertheless they had enough proof that women could and had made it as artists and enough encouragement to set off on that course themselves.” (Mathews, 1998, p. 20).
As the Civil War was ending, Mary, who was twenty-one at the time, started planning her next step as an artist, studying abroad, even though she faced some adversity (Mathews, 1998, p. 26). “Robert S. Cassatt, her father, is supposed to have said to his daughter Mary, when she insisted on an artistic career, “I would almost rather see you dead.”” (Francis E. Hyslop)
Cassatt left for Europe with her mother in 1865 as twenty-one year old who could have attracted multiple men as potential husbands (Mathews, 1998, p.27). However, “she was in no hurry to marry with such a compelling alternative in her art career” (Mathews, 1998, p.28). When she was settled in Paris, she got back to work by copying paintings at the Louvre and was accepted as a student by Jean-León Gérome (Mathews, 1998, p.31-32). She continued to paint for the Salon and learn from artists such as Charles Chaplin (Mathews, 1998, p.40). After spending roughly a year back in the United States with her family, she returned to Europe and received praise for her work, which convinced her that going back home was not possible if she wanted to be a successful artist (Mathews, 1998, p.77). She was especially successful in Parma, Italy and Seville, Spain (Mathews, 1998, p.82).
Both of these artists were establishing professional careers in a “man’s world”.

“In spite of their economic status, Morisot and Cassatt had many obstacles to overcome in establishing themselves as artists, and they experienced more discouragement than anyone would be likely to guess from looking at their works. Not surprisingly, they concentrated on familiar, domestic, themes. ” (Francis E. Hyslop) Interestingly enough, at a quick glance their paintings can look the same, but their representation of women and the message they try to convey is remarkably contrasting. Mary Cassatt focused on the “real” definition of woman. She wanted her audience to view women as strong and independent human beings who are completely capable of pursuing anything they set their mind too. Mary Cassatt made her audience think, she wanted to make a quiet scandal, she wanted to speak through her figures. In Mary Cassatt’s The loge (1882), she illustrates two elegantly dressed women enjoying a night at the theatre. Usually, men are the ones that would go out without their wives and enjoy a casual or elegant social scene while women socialize in their houses drinking tea and watching their kids play. “Cassatt’s new images include representations of women as independent public people; women pursuing interests which are not directed toward the needs of others; and women who enjoy the company of other women.” (Yeh) This painting illustrates how women are more than capable to socialize in a public

scene and knowledgeable enough to appreciate the opera. Mary Cassatt had various approaches to painting her definition of women. In 1878, Mary Cassatt painted Reading “Le Figaro”. This painting illustrates illustrates Mary Cassatt’s mother reading the newspaper. To make the women a focal point, Mary Cassatt does not paint the entire family room or any decorative object. Mary Cassatt depicts this woman as being well educated and a woman that is interested and wants to know more about the outside world. This painting is a way for Mary Cassatt to speak through her figures, break away from women objectification, and open the public's eye to women’s access to equitable opportunity and rights.
On the other hand, Berthe Morisot focused on pleasing society’s image of women.

She did not want people to feel uncomfortable or displeased with her art, she wanted them to feel content, orderly, and natural. Berthe Morisot’s The Dress Making Lesson; Le lecon De Couture (1884), depicts a mother teaching her child how to sow. “Morisot’s representation of women’s lives in the suburb of Passy play their part in establishing and maintaining the meanings of such social systems” (Adler). Teaching a child to sow is living within the society’s boundaries of what women are supposed to do and know, and that is exactly what Morisot wanted to portray. Morisot maintained her motherhood paintings very traditional and eye

pleasing.
On the contrary, when painting about motherhood Cassatt depicted a different way of mothers teaching their children lessons. In Mary Cassatt’s Woman and Child Driving (1880), she illustrated a mother holding the reigns of a carriage in complete control while the child is observing. This painting also portrays how the women knows where she is going and in the meantime there is a man sitting on the carriage being led by the woman. “Cassatt critics in particular have overlooked the content of her art, not only because of blind spots about the politics of gender, but also because as a female artist, Cassatt herself does not conform to standard male image of women. “ (Yeh) In this painting, Cassatt focuses on how empowered and in control women can be and depicts how a mother is teaching her child to be that type of woman. In this way, she breaks male hegemony.
Cassatt also illustrates the early relationship of a mother and her first born and how real the relationship is. In Cassatts’ Maternite (1890), she illustrated an intimate and true connection between a mother and child. She focuses on that moment when mothers have to stop anything they are doing and nurture and give their child food. She makes every figure and line as if they had a purpose, instead of just being blank. This figure of a mother and a child reinforces a feeling of protection and nurture, not of female obligations. On the contrary, Berthe Morisot’s The Cradle (1872),illustrates a mother watching over her child whom is resting. The mother is not touching the baby, or nurturing it, she is just watching it in its cradle that is covered by a net curtain, which may be perceived as a division or disconnection between the mother and her baby.
It is clear that Morisot and Cassatt had very similar backgrounds growing up. They were both from affluent families that gave them the necessary tools to become knowledgeable in several subjects, especially art. They both had the opportunity to learn from masters like Chaplin and continued to look for ways to improve their skills such as copying paintings in the Louvre. Even though they had similar backgrounds, however, they differed in the way they viewed themselves and what they thought they could do. As Townley mentioned, Berthe Morisot was praised for remaining within the bounds of what was acceptable for a woman to do. And Cassatt, on the other hand, went beyond those bounds and tried to try to be better than men. They were similar because they were both part of the Impressionist movement, but what the public might fail to see is that Cassatt went beyond the bounds of what was acceptable for her to do. Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt were extraordinary artists and, in their own ways, helped prove that women could succeed if they chose to do so.