Mary Cassatt : A Life
(Nancy Mowell Mathews
)
One of the few women Impressionists, Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) had a life of paradoxes: American born, she lived and worked in France; a classically trained artist, she preferred the company of radicals; never married, she painted exquisite and beloved portraits of mothers and children. This book provides new insight into the personal life and artistic endeavors of this extraordinary woman.
Mary Cassatt : Modern Woman
(Judith A. Barter, George T. M. Shackelford, Erica E. Hirshler (Editor), Mary Cassatt)
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) holds a unique place in the history of art. One of the few women artists to succeed professionally in her era, she was the only American invited to exhibit with the French Impressionists. This handsome volume, richly illustrated with paintings, prints, and pastels spanning Cassatt's entire career, accompanies a major traveling exhibition that opens at The Art Institute of Chicago in October 1998.
Essays trace Cassatt's development from her early influences through her critical role in bringing Old Master and Impressionist art to the United States. The superb colorplates clearly demonstrate why Cassatt is considered one of North America's most important artists.
Supplementary works by Cassatt's contemporaries are reproduced along with numerous photographs and the first complete list of exhibitions in which Cassatt participated in her lifetime. The exhibition travels to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Mary Cassatt : Prints and Drawings from the Artist's Studio
(Warren Adelson, Jay E. Cantor, Susan Pinsky, Marc Rosen, Shapiro)
One of the greatest--and most popular--of the Impressionists, Mary Cassatt created some of her most inventive and appealing images in the print medium. Documenting a startling new discovery, this exquisitely produced book unveils 204 major prints and drawings that have been sequestered in a private collection for nearly half a century.
Sometime before 1914, as Cassatt neared the end of her career, she was coaxed into selling her "studio collection"--etchings, monotypes, color aquatints, and drawings that she had kept for sentimental or archival purposes--to the dealer Ambroise Vollard. He added a few pieces to the collection from other notable Cassatt fans, including her friend Edgar Degas. When World War I disrupted the art market, Vollard tucked this remarkable collection away and never exhibited it before his death on the eve of World War II. The entire group was acquired by a French collector, who showed only a few works to friends and selected members of the art community.
Many of the prints, which are in pristine condition, are previously unknown variants of Cassatt's work; others have never before been seen in any version. Because Cassatt's output as a printmaker was quite small and because her color prints are praised for being among her most radically innovative works, this discovery is an extraordinary event in an art world where demand for Cassatt's art seems insatiable.
The catalogue section of the book documents in exacting detail and in superb illustrations the 41 color prints, 127 black-and-white prints, and 36 drawings that constitute what is now known as the studio collection. Essays by leading experts tell the story of this rare collection and explore Cassatt's virtuosity as a printmaker. The result is an important and unusually beautiful publication that will intensify interest in this much-loved artist and stimulate a new appreciation of her significant contributions to modern printmaking.