Mary Cassatt. The Independent

Mary Cassatt described herself as an “American, clearly and frankly American,” but first anchored her art in the pictorial tradition of the Old Masters, studied during her travels in Europe, before becoming an essential figure of the Impressionist movement in France, where she lived for no less than six decades. “I am independent!”, she proclaimed: “I can live alone and I love to work”. Adopting a chrono-thematic approach, the exhibition draws a new portrait of the artist, studying her art through the prism of the notion of independence, of which she was very proud, and which she established as her guiding principle throughout her life.

Comprising nearly 80 paintings, pastels and prints, and covering the artist's entire career, “Mary Cassatt, The Independent” opens up new perspectives on her work, drawing on unpublished letters and sources not yet exploited to date. Works from European public and private collections that are rarely shown will be presented, as well as paintings and pastels from American collections rarely exhibited outside the United States.

A selection of Cassatt's early works and portraits of her loved ones shows how the artist's social environment, her travels and her knowledge of art from the past shaped her approach and practice. Making a point of being independent (initially at the request of her wealthy family), she quickly established herself in her own studio and employed paid models there. In a very largely male-dominated environment, and against a backdrop of latent nationalism, she quickly managed to establish herself as a professional painter.

Her depictions of elegant young women, moving in society, entertaining at home or amusing themselves at the theatre – conquering the modern world and their independence – are among the artist's most remarkable achievements, as dazzling examples testify. These bold and lively images did not fail to attract attention in the Impressionist exhibitions, in which Mary Cassatt participated assiduously (four times, starting in 1879), at the invitation of her friend Edgar Degas. Mary Cassatt's essential contribution to these avant-garde exhibitions, self-proclaimed “independent”, will be examined and re-evaluated.

Her activities in the art market constitute another fundamental aspect of the artist's independence. She specialized in painting “mothers and children”, a high-demand genre in which she excelled – and with which she remains associated – while also fulfilling portrait commissions. Some key works in the exhibition will also evoke her crucial role as a “consultant”, advising her relatives, friends and American acquaintances on their purchases of Impressionist paintings in particular – and thus on the building of art collections in the United States.

At this stage in her career, in the early 1890s, Mary Cassatt's financial independence allowed her to become a landowner. Surrounded by a vast park, the chateau she acquired in the Oise served as a backdrop for many outdoor scenes featuring women and children: luminous works with vibrant colors. Modern Woman, the most important commission the artist ever received, for a monumental decoration intended for the Woman's Building at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, constitutes a highlight in her career and a major stage in her work. This colossal decoration, now lost, will be evoked throughout the exhibition through a collection of prints and pastels linked to this decor, as well as through a film offering a digital restoration of this gigantic work (4 x 18m), of unique ambition both in terms of its dimensions and its subject matter. Her admirable series of prints, the Ten Color Prints, will also be studied in light of this new, remarkably experimental phase of her work and her progressive views on women's education.

Mary Cassatt's commitment to independence indeed went beyond her own path and artistic approach. A fervent supporter of the women's struggle for the right to vote, Cassatt encouraged her contemporaries to “work for suffrage, for it is women who will decide the question of the life or death of a nation.” With her friend Louisine Havemeyer, she organized an exhibition in New York in 1915 to benefit women's suffrage. A restricted selection of Mary Cassatt's paintings shown in this exhibition concludes the tour, demonstrating how not only the art of this pioneering artist, but also her actions could tend towards activism.