Mary Cassatt Quotes (5 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

Mary Cassatt: 5 quotes1 like

Famous Mary Cassatt Quotes

“I have given up my studio & torn up my father's portrait, & have not touched a brush for six weeks nor ever will again until I see some prospect of getting back to Europe. I am very anxious to go out west next fall & get some employment, but I have not yet decided where.”

Mary Cassatt

Quote from her letter of July, 1871; as quoted in her biography online at https://www.marycassatt.org/biography.html

“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.”

Mary Cassatt

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.”

Mary Cassatt

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.”

Mary Cassatt

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.”

Mary Cassatt

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