This ground breaking study, the definitive introduction to the work of artist Mary Cassatt, places her work in the wider context of nineteenth-century feminism and art theory and is now updated with color illustrations. This groundbreaking study redefines the status of the beloved American artist Mary Cassatt, placing her work in the wider context of nineteenth- century feminism and art theory. Mary Cassatt looks at the artists work in light of her time as an advocate for womens intellectual life and political emancipation. Esteemed by her contemporaries for her commitment to what she and her radical colleagues in Paris termed the new artnow called impressionismCassatt brought her discerning gaze and compositional inventiveness to the study of the subtle, often psychological, social interactions of women in public and private spaces. Focusing on key moments of engagement and change over the artists long career, art historian Griselda Pollock discusses Cassatts artistic training across Europe, her profound study of the Old Masters, and places fresh emphasis on the artists interest in Manet and other contemporary French and Spanish painters as well as her influence on American collections of French modernism. Now revised with a new preface, updates to the bibliography, and color illustrations throughout, this book offers a reevaluation of the work of this important artist as seen through the frames of class, gender, space, and difference. 288 color illustrations
