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Rebel With White Gloves

© Meg Greene Malvasi

By the time that she was fifteen, Mary Cassatt (1844-1921) knew she wanted to be an artist. At nineteen, enrolled in the prestigious Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, she informed her father of her plans to go to Paris to continue her training. Her father replied "I would almost rather see you dead." Young women from respectable families did not become professional artists.

But Mary knew that if she were to have any chance to become a painter she had to go to Europe. Despite the admission of women into some American art academies, opportunities for women in the United States to become professional artists were few.

Despite his reluctance, Mary's father gave her his permission to go to Paris in 1866. But Mary still did not have an easy time. The official art school, the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, did not admit women. But by taking private lessons, copying paintings in the Louvre, and attending women-only classes Mary sustained her determination to become an artist.

Her efforts paid off. In 1868, Mary was one of two two American women to exhibit a painting at the Paris Salon, the major art exhibit of the year. The Salon showing earned Mary her first critical acclaim. It also persuaded her to stay in Europe. By 1875, she was settled in her own studio as a highly successful and self-supporting artist. Yet, Mary was not content. Her work, though popular with buyers, was not satisfying to her. She was still searching for her own style. That same year, Mary discovered a group of pastel drawings by the French painter Edgar Degas in a dealer's window. Her reaction was immediate. "It changed my life," she recalled. "I saw art then as I wanted to see it." She sought Degas out for advice. Her initial contact with the temperamental and witty artist marked the beginning of a friendship that lasted almost forty years.

It was Degas who suggested that Mary exhibit with a group of artists known as the "Independents," (or the "Impressionists" as their critics called them). The Impressionists challenged the more traditional approaches to art, by painting the natural impressions of everyday life as they saw and felt them. Exhibiting with the Impressionists would allow her to paint what Mary wanted. She quickly agreed to Degas's proposal.

But associating with the Impressionists was risky. Breaking away from the traditional guidelines of the Salon meant giving up the chance for recognition, and instead, facing ridicule. But Mary never regretted her decision. "I accepted with joy," she later wrote. "I hated conventional art. I began to live."