Cassatt : More Than Merely Pretty

Familiarity with the painter’s elegant work makes it too easy to overlook her skill, determination and even grit.

Cassatt, Mary. “The Letter,” c. 1890–91. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Image, which is in public domain, kindly provided by MFA website.

Bless me, Mary Cassatt, for I have sinned — against you.

I almost missed the “Mary Cassatt at Work” exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I felt I already had seen enough of her work, as Mary Cassatt (1844–1926) is well represented in major U.S. museums.

It wasn’t a deliberate decision to skip the show. It was that I didn’t make an effort to see it. I would up luckily going to the Philadelphia Museum of Art as part of a visit this summer to see my mother.

If you know anything about Cassatt’s work, you may find something sweet in that, seeing this large show of her paintings as a mother-daughter duo. Cassatt painted many paintings of mothers and children, although admittedly these tended show young mothers with infants and toddlers, and not daughters in their 50s with their retiree mums.

Cassatt’s family portraits pose questions for the viewer.

Cassatt, “The Boating Party,” 1893/1894. National Galley of Art, Washington, D.C. Image, which is in public domain, kindly provided via NGA website.