About the artist
Born in 1844 in what's now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Mary Stevenson Cassatt spent her formative years in France and Germany. Her art education began at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1860. Her work, The Mandolin Player, was first featured at the Paris Salon in 1868, before she went back to Philadelphia in 1870. In 1871, she relocated to Europe again. She spent much of 1872 in Parma, Italy, studying masterpieces by Correggio and Parmigianino under the guidance of Carlo Raimondi. Her study trips also included Spain, Belgium, and Holland in 1873. By June 1874, she had established herself in Paris, where she regularly exhibited her work. Invited by Edgar Degas in 1877, Cassatt joined the Impressionists, and under their influence, her art evolved. Her main subjects became her family and later the mother-child relationship. Cassatt's work was impeded by failing eyesight after 1900, leading to her passing in 1926 at her countryside residence.
