Musée Jacquemart-André
9 March to 23 July 2018
In the spring of 2018, Culturespaces and the
Musée Jacquemart-André will be holding a major retrospective devoted to
Mary Cassatt (1844–1926). Considered during her lifetime as the greatest
American artist, Cassatt lived in France for more than sixty years. She
was the only American painter to have exhibited her work with the
Impressionists in Paris.
The female representative of Impressionism
The exhibition focuses on the only American female artist in the Impressionist movement; she was spotted by Degas in the 1874 Salon, and subsequently exhibited her works alongside those of the group. This monographic exhibition will enable visitors to rediscover Mary Cassatt through fifty major works, comprising oils, pastels, drawings, and engravings, which, complemented by various documentary sources, will convey her modernist approach — that of an American woman in Paris.A franco-american approach to painting
Born into a wealthy family of American bankers with French origins, Mary Cassatt spent a few years in France during her childhood, continuing her studies at the Pennsylvania Fine Arts Academy, and eventually settled in Paris. Therefore, she lived on both continents. This cultural duality is evident in the distinctive style of the artist, who succeeded in making her mark in the male world of French art and reconciling these two worlds.The originality of her vision
Just like Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt excelled in the art of portraiture, to which she adopted an experimental approach. Influenced by the Impressionist movement and its painters who liked to depict daily life, Mary Cassatt’s favourite theme was portraying the members of her family, whom she represented in their intimate environment. Her unique vision and modernist interpretation of a traditional theme such as the mother and child earned her international recognition. Through this subject, the general public will discover many familiar aspects of French Impressionism and Postimpressionism, along with new elements that underscore Mary Cassatt’s decidedly American identity.A prestigious selection
The exhibition will bring together a selection of exceptional works loaned from major American museums, such as Washington’s National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Terra Foundation in Chicago; works will also be loaned by prestigious institutions in France — the Musée d’Orsay, the Petit Palais, INHA, and the BnF (French National Library) — and in Europe, such as the Bilbao Museum of Fine Arts, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, and the Bührle Foundation in Zurich. There will also be many works from private collections. Rarely exhibited, these masterpieces will be brought together in the exhibition for the first time.
Mary
Cassatt,
Portrait
of Alexander J. Cassatt and His Son, Robert Kelso Cassatt,
1884,
oil on canvas, W1959-1-1, Courtesy of the Philadelphia
Museum
of Art © Philadelphia Museum of Art: Purchased with the W. P. Wilstach Fund and
with funds contributed by Mrs. William Coxe Wright,
1959
circa
1880-81,
oil on canvas, lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, From the Collection of
James Stillman,
Gift
of Dr. Ernest G. Stillman, 1922 (22.16.17), photo © The Metropolitan Museum of
Art, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / image of the MMA
Mary
Cassatt,
In
the loge,
1878,
oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 10.35, photo © 2018 Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston
Mary
Cassatt,
Feeding
the ducks,
1895,
drypoint, softground etching, and aquatint © Bibliothèque de l’Institut
national d’histoire de l’art
Mary Cassatt,
Seated
Woman with a Child in Her Arms,
circa 1890, oil on canvas, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 82/25, photo ©
Bilboko Arte
Ederren
/ Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao
Mary Cassatt,
Music,
1874, oil on canvas, Paris, Petit Palais, musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de
Paris, PPP3737, photo © RMN-Grand Palais /Agence
Bulloz
Mary Cassatt,
Baby
in Dark Blue Suit, Looking Over His Mother’s Shoulder,
circa 1889,
oil on canvas, Cincinnati Art Museum, John J. Emery Fund,
oil on canvas, Cincinnati Art Museum, John J. Emery Fund,
1928.222
© Cincinnati Art Museum
Mary
Cassatt,
Summertime,
1894-95, oil on canvas, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra
Collection, 1988.25, photo © Terra
Foundation
for American Art, Chicago
Mary
Cassatt,
Young
women picking fruits,
1891,
oil on canvas, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Patrons Art Fund, 22.8 ©
Carnegie
Museum
of Art, Pittsburgh; Patrons Art Fund
Mary
Cassatt,
Little
Girl in a Blue Armchair,
1878,
oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. And Mrs.
Paul Mellon,
1983.1.18
© Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
Mary Cassatt,
Woman
and child in front of a tablet where a pitcher and a bowl are placed,
circa
1889, pastel on beige papier, Paris, musée
d’Orsay,
donation of M. Jean-Pierre Hugot et de Mlle Louise Hugot, RF 31843 © RMN-Grand
Palais (musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski
1899,oil on canvas, lend of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, collection H.O
Havemeyer,
donation
of Mrs. H.O Havemeyer, 29.100.47, 1929, photo © The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / image of the MMA
Mary
Cassatt,
[Mother
and chlid] : [Green dress],
circa
1894, strong water, dry-point and aquatint in colors, M CASSATT 12 ©
Bibliothèque de
l’Institut
national d’histoire de l’art
Mary
Cassatt,
By
omnibus (or interior of a tram passing over a bridge),
circa
1890-1891, dry-point and soft vanish, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale
de
France (BnF), Breeeskin, 145-IV IFF19, Cassatt (Mary), n°13, photo © BnF, Dist.
RMN-Grand Palais / image BnF
