Centering the Female Experience: Mary Cassatt and the Modern Woman

Artist Mary Cassatt’s life was different than most of her middle-class contemporaries of the mid- to late-19th century. Rather than marry and have children, she dedicated herself to the life of an artist and in her early twenties, she left her Philadelphia home for Paris. Although trained in Classical and Romantic styles of painting, Cassatt was drawn to modern subjects and approaches. In 1877, Edgar Degas invited her to join the Impressionists, and, along with Berthe Morisot and Marie Bracquemond, she became one of three women—and the only American—to regularly show with the avant-garde group in Paris. In the 1870s, Cassatt’s subject matter featured women in modern life—attending the theatre, dining at cafés, or strolling in a park. Painted from a woman’s perspective, her artworks reveal a distinctly female “gaze” upon her subjects in contrast to the common treatment of the female form by male artists as passive objects of beauty.

In the late 1880s, Cassatt began to focus on her most recognized subjects: women and children. Her paintings stress the importance of motherhood and family within a modern context. Her loose, light-filled brushstrokes, the shallow space and strong contrast of Japanese prints, and the up-close and personal view of the figures’ pink, fleshy skin, create works of spontaneity and intimacy. In this painting, the mother’s powerful physical presence underscores the essential work of child rearing. Her muscular hands are a contrast to the dainty, gloved hands more typical in the era’s portrait painting.

The child’s gesture as she places her hand on the woman’s mouth seems to ask, “What are you thinking?” As the child’s touch draws the viewer’s attention to this moment of thought, the artist perhaps suggests that women in modern society deserve consideration as full, complex individuals, whether they dedicate themselves to family or the pursuit of a professional career (or both). Although much has changed since Cassatt’s time, her life and work serve as reminders of the ongoing issues impacting women today, including gender-based violence, workplace equality, and reproductive rights.

—Katherine Love, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art

Mary Cassatt (American, 1844 – 1926)
The Child’s Caress, c. 1891
Oil on canvas
Gift in memory of Wilhelmina Tenney by a group of her friends, 1953 (1845.1)