Mary Cassatt Quotes

Mary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. She was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania , but lived much of her adult life in France, where she first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists. Cassatt often created images of the social and private lives of women, with particular emphasis on the intimate bonds between mothers and children.

She was described by Gustave Geffroy in 1894 as one of "les trois grandes dames" of Impressionism alongside Marie Bracquemond and Berthe Morisot.

✵ 22. May 1844 – 14. June 1926
Mary Cassatt photo
Mary Cassatt: 5   quotes 1   like

Famous Mary Cassatt Quotes

“I used to go and flatten my nose against that window and absorb all I could of his [Degas'] art. It changed my life. I saw art then as I wanted to see it.”

Quote, c. 1875; as cited by Nancy Mowll Mathews, in Mary Cassatt: A Life, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1998, p. 114 - ISBN 978-0-585-36794-1
Cassatt admired Edgar Degas, whose pastels had made a powerful impression on her when she encountered them in an art dealer's window in Paris, 1875

“O how wild I am to get to work, my fingers farely itch & my eyes water to see a fine picture again.”

quoted by Nancy Mowll Mathews, in Mary Cassatt: A Life, Villard Books, New York, 1994, p. 76 - ISBN 978-0-394-58497-3
Quote, c. 1871 - shortly after the archbishop of Pittsburgh commissioned Mary Cassatt to paint two copies of paintings by Correggio in Parma, Italy

“.. crushed by the strength of this Art [the old Egyptian art]... I fought against it but it conquered, it is surely the greatest Art the past has left us.... how are my feeble hands to ever paint the effect on me.”

Quote of Cassatt, after her trip to Egypt, 1910; as cited by Nancy Mowll Mathews, in Mary Cassatt: A Life, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1998, p. 291 - ISBN 978-0-585-36794-1

“.. we [the Impressionists ] are carrying on a despairing fight & need all our forces.”

Quote c. 1879; as cited by Nancy Mowll Mathews, in Mary Cassatt: A Life, Villard Books, New York, 1994, p. 118 - ISBN 978-0-394-58497-3

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