Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman ©1999 Reem Regina Tatar The challenges that Mary Cassatt faced and overcame as an artist, an American, and a woman thriving in the era of the French Impressionist movement have given her the experience, success, and power to be one of the greatest French Impressionist female artists of all time. One of the most distinct characteristics of Impressionism is the effort to record visual reality, to portray subject matter in the fleeting moment of time using light and color. Cassatt's strokes of color are light, vibrant, and emotional. Her ability to accent the highlights in the skin, hands, facial expressions, and posture of her subjects shows us that she is not interested in portraying an idealized perspective of how women, children, and men should look. Rather, they are portrayed as truly as Cassatt perceives them. In her own impressions of them; in their simple yet complex, genuine, human expressions. An example of this is in "The Child's Bath," (1893) where the mother's strong hand is firmly placed around her daughter's chubby belly as her other hand washes the child's feet. We sense the emotional bond, comfort, and safety between the mother and her child. What we see is what we feel, exactly how it is: a mother gives her child a bath, comfortable and protected. There is no mystery or false expectation of the "joys of motherhood" or the "innocence of childhood." Although one may perceive this painting as such, it is not Cassatt's intention to present us with an idealized or nostalgic rendition of what motherhood should be like. It presents the reality of motherhood in its most natural and honest form and also gives us a pleasant sense of the intimate bond shared between this mother and her child. Besides the fact that Cassatt's artistic style and approach is not idealized, it is also not erotic, which was typical of the male artists of her era who portray women as the object of men's sexual desires. The theme Cassatt is best known for is her scenes of women and their children. It is quite possible that Cassatt chose to depict entirely women and children in her paintings because of her guilt for not doing what women of her era were supposed to do: be loving mothers and homemakers. Ironically, this theme is not new. In the history of art, we have seen this theme in classical Renaissance paintings of the Virgin Madonna and child. Yet Cassatt presents this theme to us with a modern perspective of her time in the late 1870's, with her many paintings of mothers and their children. Another factor to consider in Cassatt's portrayals of women and children is that her paintings may have been an expression of her own dreams of motherhood. It is possible that she connected with that desire within herself by expressing these themes in her paintings. Also we must remember that as much as Cassatt may have secretly yearned for the pleasures of motherhood, Cassatt was a painter, and wildly successful at her craft at a time when women were not supposed to enjoy the pleasures of independence and power. Yet the pressures of being a successful artist and painter, as well as travelling around Europe, and raising a family at the same time were not possible for Cassatt. A woman's position in society was a very conservative and repressed one. Women were restricted in their activities and were left to the duties of motherhood and family life. It was a time in history when England underwent the prudent rule of Queen Victoria that affected attitudes and behaviors in Europe and America. Women were not given as many benefits and freedoms as men were. For example, when Mary Cassatt was a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, women artists were not allowed to draw nude bodies. Drawing from the nude is a very important basis of art education because this is how one learns to express the form of the human body. Having to deal with this restriction may have been very discouraging for many female artists. However, Cassatt was very determined, and she traveled to Paris and studied in various art schools to perfect her abilities and to become a distinguished artist. Yet another challenge Cassatt faced was the issues that surrounded her being an artist. To be a painter at this time was widely accepted as a man's position only. Secondly, Cassatt was an American as well as a French Impressionist. In 1877 when Degas asked her to join the Impressionists, (after she was rejected several times from many Salon exhibitions and other juried shows) Cassatt happily accepted Degas's invitation. Cassatt told her biographer, Achille Segard, "At last, I could work with absolute independence without considering the opinion of a jury. I had already recognized who were my true masters. I admired Manet, Courbet and Degas. I hated conventional art ­ I began to live." This statement clearly shows us that Cassatt had felt the critical sting of the jurors and critics in France, which painfully affected her because she was an American. Around the 1890's, French nationalism began to grow increasingly, and Cassatt was excluded from the recognition that Paris artists were receiving. The difficult issues that faced her were certainly daunting, but nevertheless, Cassatt was able to overcome them. She is revered as a French Impressionist artist to this day. The intention of the exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts is to reconnect us with feelings of domesticity, as well as our own inner elegance, poise, and class which is prevalent in Cassatt's work. Women who view Cassatt's work are reinforced in their desire to be creative, modern, and determined to achieve their goals, even if external forces may try to limit them. Men are reminded that women play an equally important role in society, as well as in the family, and deserve respect and appreciation for their efforts. The successes of the exhibition are that it makes visitors aware that a great female French Impressionist painter existed and that Impressionism wasn't entirely reserved for men. It puts the word "modern" into perspective because as the title of the exhibition states, Mary Cassatt is a "modern woman." She opened the avenues of an entirely new lifestyle for women of her era and all eras to come. Cassatt proved that yes, it is possible for women to become successful artists, even in a country other than their own. It is possible to be a single, independent woman and artist, and still be able to connect with motherhood through the emotional connections between the subjects in her paintings. This exhibition presents to us the endless possibilities for success and joy of modern life with abundance, liberation, cultural and gender equality.