'I am independent! I can live alone and I love to work.' ~Mary Cassatt~
Source: marycassatt.org / oils / The Young Girls / 1885
When Edgar Degas first saw Mary Cassatt's work he invited her to exhibit with the Impressionists.
Cassatt happily accepted the invitation and said 'At last, I could work with absolute independence without considering the opinion of a jury. I had already recognized who were my true masters. I admired Manet, Courbet and Degas. I hated conventional art and from that moment on began to live.'
Cassatt was the daughter of a rich American businessman of French ancestry. She studied art in Paris and finally settled there in 1867.
She was only one of three women Impressionists to ever exhibit in America, and like her good friend Degas, she focused on the human figure. She loved success with her sensitive depictions of mothers with their children.
Source: marycassatt.org /Mother and Two Children / Oils
Unlike many of her fellow Impressionists, Cassatt never struggled financially. She also encouraged many of her rich American friends to invest in the Impressionism movement, and many of these Impressionist paintings can still be seen in America today.