C is for Cassatt. Mary Cassatt is one of my favorite painters. The majority of her paintings focused on women and children, in their day to day lives. I love the way she shows the childrens' body language. Anyone can see the sprawled out abandon they exhibit when sitting on Mommy's lap.
Or the totally put out look of boredom -
Ironically, Cassatt never had children of her own. She did have nieces and nephews of whom she was quite fond. Along with her dear sister, Lydia, the nieces and nephews are featured in many of her paintings.
portraits of sister Lydia
Mary and Lydia spent many years living in Paris to enable Mary to study with leading painters of the day. Her father, disapproving of her life choices (as in not marrying and having kids) supported her basic needs but refused to finance her painting endeavors in any way - no lesson fees, no paints, no canvas, nothing. Mary struggled to follow her heart.
self portrait
As with so many of the Impressionist painters, the respect and admiration of her work, (and the value attributed to same) did not really reach full measure until after her death.
Take a visit to http://www.marycassatt.org/ to read about Mary's life greater detail, and view a gallery of her work.
This is my favorite Cassatt painting. I have a print of it hanging in my hallway so that every morning when I walk out of my bedroom the first thing I see is -
This post has been brought to you by the letter C and Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday group. Join the fun. Click on the link to the right to see Jenny's site.
one of my favorites as well -- colors, warmth, charm, mischief, love. she does it quite like no one else.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy Cassatt, also. I saw a few of her works just last Saturday at the Art Museum in Chicago.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first I've seen of
ReplyDeleteCassatt's work and she is quite
good capturing a child and their
movement...
Nice post
Sandy
I love Cassatt also...
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite painters...
She's one of my favorites too! I have a coffee table book with her work. (Yeah, I know it's not the same as having it on the wall, but it's still a wonderful book.)
ReplyDeleteWell Debbie, I think a coffee table book of her work would be quite spectacular too!
ReplyDeleteI love your work too! So many beautiful paintings. This was a totally cool share. Love it! Come visit soon. Happy weekending to you!
ReplyDeleteI've great respect for Marie Cassat. It was hard for a woman to be a painter in that time!
ReplyDeleteThis is a FABULOUS "C" post! She is one of my favorites as well!
ReplyDeleteCassatt captured the mother/child relationship very well. it's sad to know that we only appreciate the artist after her death but her work lives on.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy seeing the various paintings here. thanks for sharing. I hope you have a sweet day.
I love learning about artists. Thanks for a great post.
ReplyDeleteHi BBB! ~~ I had a hard time finding you to return your visit and nice comment. I am liking Mary Cassatt and have enjoyed knowing more about her. She was not in my circle until now.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite picture here is the little girls sprawled in the upholstered settee/sofa. Your 'girl in the hall' will be a close second for me.
Please, when you visit me would you sign in on the 'Name/URL', i.e. as 'VBR' and your 'http://birdbeeandbloom.blogspot.com' so I can get back to you. Thanks.
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Love Cassatt so it was a treat to see all these pics. Thanks for a fun C
ReplyDeleteI really like the first one a lot... there's something about the child...almost arching its back as small children in laps so often do when they're tired of being constrained!
ReplyDeleteShe is one of my all-time favourites too. The first one is one that I look at often.
ReplyDeleteLovely post.
She is one of my favorites, too!
ReplyDeleteI love the way she captures the absolute essence of children.
This was a beautiful post for the letter "C".
A+