Born this day in 1844, Mary Cassatt,artist. Cassatt is one of the more famous and successful female painters of the 19th and early 20th century. Cassatt's most famous paintings capture the mother and child relationship.
Cassatt was born in the Pennsylvania and to a family of money. They believed in world travel and education. But, as open as her father was, he did not approve of his daughter's art career. And at this time in history, women were limited as to how far their art studies could go- for example women were not allowed to draw the from the live nude model. And this is even today an important part of studying drawing and painting and sculpture.
Cassatt moved to Paris, France to study her art. And her Mother and sister came along to chaperon. Throughout Cassatt's life she traveled back and forth between the United States and Paris France, but most of her life was in France. She studied with several artists of the day and she worked her way into the Art salons of the time and it is at this time she befriended Edgar Degas. Cassatt exhibited along with the Impressionists. And she died in France in 1926.
