By: Ziva Kurt
in the museum Jacquemart-André A major retrospective exhibition of the artist Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was presented. Cassatt, an American artist born in Pennsylvania, lived in France for over sixty years, and often exhibited with the Impressionist artists, and this is a great opportunity to engage with her works.
Cassatt settled in Paris in 1874, and exhibited in the Impressionist Salon exhibitions. The exhibition features 50 selected works in various media: oil paintings, pastels, drawings and etchings, and is accompanied by various documentary sources. Among the works are loans from important American museums such as the National Gallery in Washington, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and more. The loans are from important institutions in France such as the Musée d'Orsay, the Petit Palais, and also from Europe – such as the Bilbao Museum. Among the works, there are some that have rarely been exhibited.
Mary Cassatt Exhibition at the Jacquemart André Museum
This monographic exhibition is divided into several sections that allow visitors to rediscover the artist; starting from her beginnings as a painter in the United States, her inspirational journeys in Europe, examining her path, the criticisms she received at salons, and her exploration of the modern woman. These are milestones that appear in the paintings and are supported by documents about her.
I chose to open with two works on display in the Paris exhibition: the painting “Baby in its Mother’s Arms” reflects Mary Cassatt’s ability to depict babies in a way that is incredibly vivid and sweet. The painting is unfinished; the mother and baby’s faces are almost complete, and the rest is depicted in a quick, fragmented, and energetic outline. It is possible that this painting is related to another unfinished painting from around 1891, in which the same figures appear. At the bottom left is a dedication by Mary Cassatt to Adolphe Bury (1877-1934), an artist and teacher at the Philadelphia Academy.
The work “Musical Band” is close in subject matter to works from the 17th century. Musical bands and concerts were prevalent in the works of Caravaggio-esque artists (following Caravaggio) in countries such as the Protestant Netherlands, France , and Italy, and sometimes symbolized the possibility of a loss of control and sexual freedom. The color scheme and the way the female figure in the lower part of the painting is presented reminds me of the works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), the 19th century English Pre-Raphaelite painter.
Cassatt, the daughter of a wealthy American banker family with French “roots,” spent several years in France as a child, continued her studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and finally settled in Paris. Hence, she lived between two continents. This cultural duality is evident in her distinctive style, and in her success in leaving a mark on the male French art world and “moving” between these two different worlds.
Cassatt's original vision
Like Berthe Morisot , the French artist of her time, Mary Cassatt excelled in portraiture. Influenced by the Impressionist movement and its artists who tended to depict everyday life, Cassatt’s favorite subject matter was the depiction of her family members, whom she depicted in their intimate surroundings. Her modernist interpretation skills and unique vision of traditional themes such as motherhood made her famous around the world. Visitors to the exhibition will have the opportunity to discover many familiar aspects of French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, alongside new elements that emphasize Mary Cassatt’s American identity. We owe Cassatt many portraits such as “Little Girl in a Blue Armchair,” 1878, a painting that was rejected for acceptance at the World’s Fair because it was considered too radical; social scenes; “Loggia” scenes, 1877-1878; Mothers and their children, and outdoor paintings depicting lake landscapes such as “Feeding the Ducks” from 1895.
Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas
The exhibition Degas/Cassatt, 2014, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., featured the first joint exhibition of works by Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas. The exhibition presented forty years of collaboration between the artist and the artist. Cassatt met Degas at the Salon of 1877, and from that moment on, her name became linked to his name in a lifelong friendship. Kimberly Jones, curator of the exhibition in Washington, wrote: “From the moment she appeared with the group of painters known as the Impressionists, her name became linked to Edgar Degas. Cassatt declared that her first encounter with Degas’s art changed her life, while Degas said of her, ‘There is someone who feels like me.’ The special sensitivity of the two and Cassatt’s extraordinary talent charmed Degas, and he invited her to exhibit with him and his friends.”
A preoccupation with spatial structure was one of the defining models of early modernist painting in Paris. In Mary Cassatt's work, proximity and density are compositional devices that also characterize the works of Edgar Degas, for example his use of sharp angles of view, changing perspectives, and framing tricks. It is clear that the two influenced and were influenced by each other. Mary Cassatt is featured in several works by Edgar Degas.
An artist who breaks gender stereotypes
In a groundbreaking book at the time, scholar Griselda Pollock wrote: “We cannot ignore the fact that the fields of artistic practice in art history are structured by gendered power relations. In order to engage with the power of women’s creation, we must emphasize the heterogeneity of women’s artistic creation, alongside individual products.”
Most of the depictions in Mary Cassatt's work deal with domestic spaces, but there are paintings that refer to public spaces, for example, a walk through the paths, a drive through the park, an outing at the theater, a cruise. These are spaces of bourgeois location, a display of social rituals that constitute and create a refined society. In the case of Cassatt's work, there are also representations of work, especially those involving child care.
The Impressionist group was attractive to some female artists because their themes of domestic life were seen as “correct” and central to their work. On closer inspection, it is interesting to note how little of the typical Impressionist iconography appears in the works made by female artists. They do not depict the territory that their male colleagues freely depicted in their works; for example, bars, cafes, backstage and other popular locations such as the bar at the Poly Bergere or the Moulin de la Galette.
Mary Cassatt dealt with women in her paintings within the familiar boundaries of bourgeois codes regarding what is proper, what is femininity, etc. Pollock refers to the figure of the “wanderer,” the flaneur, who, according to Walter Benjamin, symbolizes the privilege or freedom to move between the public spaces of the city, observing but never making contact, absorbing sights through and through a controlled and controlled gaze, but rarely a gaze that has knowledge in it.
“The wanderer” is a type of male who functions within the matrix of bourgeois ideology through which the social spaces of the city were reconstructed. The spheres divided into private and public, a division that consequently became a division of gender. The private sphere was the world, the home, women, children and servants; the public sphere defined a world of productive work, political decisions, government, education and law and public service – for men! And as Jules Simon, a moderate republican politician, said in 1892: “What is the aspiration of man? To be a good citizen, and of woman to be a good wife and a good mother. What is called in a certain way the external world, and the other world that is reserved for the inside.” The woman was defined and limited. Men moved freely between the spheres while women were forced and asked to occupy the domestic space only.
In a letter from 1903, Cassatt explains the history of her painting “Little Girl in the Blue Armchair,” 1878. The letter was sent to the renowned art dealer Ambroise Vollard, who had bought the painting. “I wanted to get back to you last night and tell you about the portrait of the little girl in the blue armchair. I painted it in 1878 or 1879. It is a portrait of the daughter of a friend of Mr. Degas. I painted her in the blue armchair and he thought the painting was good and advised me on the background. He even worked on the background. I sent it to the American section of the 1879 exhibition, but it was rejected, as the painting was considered too innovative, and the panel of judges included three people, one of whom was a pharmacist!” It was therefore known that Degas had interfered with this painting. The cleaning of the painting and its restoration for the exhibition proved this.
As for perspective: the vantage point from which the room is drawn is low; the armchairs appear large, as if depicted from the perspective of a small person placed among large things. The sharply illuminated background indicates a different sense of distance from the depicted figure.
Women and the modern public space
Mary Cassatt's love of opera began in her youth. She attended all kinds of musical performances in Philadelphia, USA, and the opera in Parma, Italy, was a particular delight for her. When she began to paint scenes at the Paris Opera , it was in reference to a familiar environment in which she felt comfortable and happy, as she had felt at home, in her various country houses, in gardens and parks. She often painted the same people, especially her sister Lydia, who was the subject of several operatic works, as well as American relatives who came to visit. Cassatt painted them watching the performance and listening to the music, unlike Degas, who painted the scene on the stage or the orchestra in the stern.
In the work “At the Opera” (Loggia), the woman wears a black suit with a white collar and cuffs, holding a closed fan in her left hand, while looking through opera glasses in her right hand. Her hat is tied with a ribbon under her chin. She is a foreign woman visiting the opera in the afternoon, and as mentioned, she looks through the glasses at something or someone who is not on the stage, for as the viewer continues to follow her gaze, he becomes acquainted with the man in the same loggia who is looking at her through his glasses.
There is an important element here – a moment captured by the painter, a clash between two gazes, and the woman’s gaze being given primacy. We find that the viewer outside the picture is presented as a kind of mirror image of the man looking inside the picture. Griselda Pollock suggested regarding the study of the gaze: More than the other senses, the eye examines, tests and controls. Similarly, it can be said that this is the subject of the painting – the problematic nature of women in public who are vulnerable to the detective’s gaze. The viewer of the work becomes an active participant in the game of the penetrating gaze of the man who looks from afar through his binoculars at the main female figure.
The painting “Two Young Ladies in a Loggia” depicts the two young ladies, the brunette Mary Allison and the blonde daughter of the poet Stephen Mallarmé, a friend of Mary Cassatt. They sit erect, deeply absorbed in the opera, their contrasting heads framed by the large coils of ribbons behind them and by the base of the central chandelier placed in the upper right corner of the picture. The two young women carry flowers: Mademoiselle Mallarmé, a small bouquet wrapped in paper, Miss Allison, a painted bouquet on her wide-open fan that hides her mouth and chin.
There is a very big difference between these paintings and Renoir’s work on the same theme in the theater, (“The First Exit”, 1876, oil on canvas, National Gallery, London). In Renoir’s work, the choice is to show the young woman in profile, visible to the viewer’s gaze inside the auditorium, while she seems unaware of how she is being perceived.
Men and women in the home space
Mary Cassatt deals with the domestic space: the balcony, the garden, the bedroom, the bathroom. The figures that appear in these spaces are mainly women and children, whom she presents with great grace and in a uniquely moving manner, and it is clear that they feel comfortable in this space, although one can also find (few) representations of a father and son. Cassatt painted her brother Alexander and her nephew during their visit to her home in Paris in a double portrait that has a sense of intimacy, but also of formality (the newspaper). Cassatt painted her brother, a businessman from Philadelphia, several times.
In another painting, “Mother and Son” (the oval mirror) emphasizes the connection between the mother and her son against the backdrop of the oval mirror that in religious works from the Renaissance symbolizes the Virgin Mary, but also serves as a kind of halo corresponding to the heads of the figures.
I admit, I love Mary Cassatt's paintings, and this is a golden opportunity to see her works, which are in various collections in the US and Europe, in this exhibition. The post is based on Griselda Pollock's book, the Jacquemart André Museum website, and my lectures on the female gaze/male gaze, impressionism, and more in my work at the Tel Aviv Museum, at the university, at lectures, and at conferences.
bibliography
Mary Cassatt An American Impressionist in Paris, Exhibition, JACQUEMART-ANDRÉ MUSEUM, https://www.musee-jacquemart-andre.com/en/mary-cassatt
Pollock, G. Vision and Difference: Femininity, Feminism and Histories of Art, Routledge, London and New York c.1988
A few words about Ziva Kurt
Ziva Kurt is an art and collections researcher and consultant; lecturer and director of the historical archive of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
Research Fellow, Elishar Center, Ben-Gurion University. You can contact her by email at Asfan.k@gmail.com or by phone at 052-3407209.
to the site https://zivakoort.com/
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As a Francophile who has visited Paris countless times, I eagerly await your articles every week and really enjoy them. Thank you, a real pleasure!
Thank you very much for the support 🙂
Excellent article. After watching the movie Same kind of different as me from 2017, in which teaching and
A painting by Marie Cust, I went back to read the wonderful article. Thank you very much. Tal