In a Victorian age when most women were confined to the circumscribed world of marriage, homemaking and motherhood, Mary Cassatt blazed like a shooting-star across the firmament of the male-dominated international art world. She was certainly the greatest American female artist of her time, and arguably she was the greatest produced by any nation. She was the only American, male or female, to become a member of the group that perhaps more than any other revolutionized western art, the French Impressionists. And to this day the example of her courageous independence and fierce dedication to nurturing her God-given talent remains an inspiration to artists everywhere.

One of the most striking things about Cassatt as an artist was that although throughout her life she steadily narrowed the range of her subject matter (to a point where, in the end, mothers and children constituted virtually her sole theme), she was daringly experimental in her technique. Beginning as a realist in the classical Italian tradition, she smoothly and dazzlingly made the transition to Impressionism and then went on to become one of the first westerners to apply the principles of Japanese ukiyo-e printmaking to her work. By the time she had developed her own inimitable "mature" style she was the mistress of virtually every available graphic medium--oils,  watercolors,  pastel,  aquatint,drypoint, soft-ground etching and several more.In this book art historian Sophia Craze both gives us an intimate look at Mary Cassatt"s extraordinary life and provides us with a valuable introduction to Cassatt"s work, the greatest of which is here faithfully reproduced in full color.

INTRODUCTION

THE EARLY PERIOD

THE IMPRESSIONIST

PERIOD 

THE MATURE PERIOD

THE LATE PERIOD

LIST OF COLOR PLATES