Musée d’Orsay
Oct. 6, 2026 – Jan. 31, 2027
National Portrait Gallery, London
March 11 – June 13, 2027
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
July 17 – Nov. 28, 2027
Fillette dans un fauteuil bleu [Enfant dans le salon bleu], 1878, Huile sur toile, 89,5 × 129,8 cm, Washington, The National Gallery of Art, Collection de Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1983.1.18, Image C
To mark the centenary of the artist’s death, the Musée d’Orsay is organizing a major exhibition dedicated to Mary Cassatt (1844–1926) in 2026, in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery in London and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. This is a highly anticipated event in France; national museums have never before dedicated a major exhibition to Mary Cassatt, an active member and key pillar of the Impressionist group. Her centenary offers an opportunity to examine the central role of this pre-eminent artist, who—through talent and determination—forged a unique identity in the art history of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, on both sides of the Atlantic.
Mary Cassatt described herself as "American—distinctly and frankly American"—yet she initially rooted her art in the pictorial tradition of the Old Masters, studied during her travels in Europe, before becoming a pivotal figure in the Impressionist movement in France, where she lived for no fewer than six decades. "I am independent!" she proclaimed. "I can live alone and I love to work." Adopting a chrono-thematic approach, the exhibition presents a fresh portrait of the artist, examining her work through the lens of independence—a quality she took great pride in and upheld as her guiding principle throughout her life.
Her activities within the art market represent another fundamental aspect of the artist’s independence. She specialized in painting "mothers with children"—a genre in high demand in which she excelled and with which she remains associated—while also fulfilling portrait commissions. Key works in the exhibition also highlight her crucial role as an advisor, guiding American family, friends, and acquaintances in their purchases of paintings—particularly Impressionist works—and thus in the formation of art collections in the United States.
Featuring nearly 80 paintings, pastels, and prints, and spanning the artist’s entire career, *Mary Cassatt: An Independent* opens up new perspectives on her work by drawing on previously unpublished letters and untapped sources. The exhibition presents rarely seen works from European public and private collections, alongside paintings and pastels from American collections that are seldom exhibited outside the United States.
A selection of Cassatt’s early works and portraits of her loved ones reveals how the artist’s social background, her travels, and her knowledge of art history shaped her approach and practice. Determined to maintain her independence—initially at the behest of her wealthy family—she quickly established her own studio and hired paid models. In a predominantly male milieu, and against a backdrop of latent nationalism, she soon succeeded in establishing herself as a professional painter. Her depictions of elegant young women navigating social life—receiving guests at home or enjoying the theater, all while conquering the modern world and their own independence—rank among the artist’s most remarkable achievements, as evidenced by a number of dazzling examples. These bold, spirited images inevitably drew attention at the Impressionist exhibitions, in which Mary Cassatt participated regularly—four times, starting in 1879—at the invitation of her friend Edgar Degas. Mary Cassatt’s vital contribution to these avant-garde exhibitions, which billed themselves as "independent," will be examined and re-evaluated.
At this stage of her career, in the early 1890s, Mary Cassatt’s financial independence enabled her to become a property owner. Set within extensive grounds, the château she acquired in the Oise region served as the backdrop for numerous outdoor scenes featuring women and children—works characterized by their luminosity and vibrant colors. *Modern Woman*—the most significant commission the artist ever received, a monumental mural for the Woman’s Building at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago—marked a career highlight and a major milestone in her body of work. This colossal mural, now lost, is represented in the exhibition through a selection of related prints and pastels, as well as a film presenting a digital reconstruction of the gigantic piece (4 x 18 meters)—a work of unique ambition in both scale and subject matter. Her remarkable series of prints, the "Ten Color Prints," is also examined in the context of this new, highly experimental phase of her work and her progressive views on women’s education.
Indeed, Mary Cassatt’s commitment to independence extended well beyond her own career path and artistic practice. A staunch supporter of the women's suffrage movement, Cassatt urged her contemporaries to "work for suffrage, for it is women who will decide the question of a nation’s life or death." In 1915, she and her friend Louisine Havemeyer organized an exhibition in New York to benefit the women's suffrage cause. A select group of Mary Cassatt’s paintings from that exhibition concludes the show, demonstrating how both the art and the actions of this pioneering artist moved toward activism.
Exhibition organized by the Musée d’Orsay,
the National Portrait Gallery (London), and the
Museum of Fine Arts (Boston).
CURATORS
PARIS
Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, Curator of Graphic Arts and Painting, Musée d’Orsay
Anne Robbins, Curator of Painting, Musée d’Orsay
LONDON
Sarah Moulden, Senior Curator of 19th-Century Collections, National Portrait Gallery
BOSTON
Erica Hirshler, Croll Senior Curator of American Paintings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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