Mary Cassatt

he painter and printmaker Mary Cassatt was one of the few women (and the only American) invited to join the circle of French artists known as the Impressionists. Frustrated by the limited art training available to her in Philadelphia, Cassatt studied in France and Spain before settling in Paris in 1874. There, she said, exposure to the innovative work of Edgar Degas marked a “turning point in my artistic life.” At Degas’s request, she exhibited with the Impressionists in 1879, and the two artists began a professional relationship marked by vibrant artistic exchange. They collected each other’s work and shared ideas about the depiction of modern life.

Among the many portraits Degas made of Cassatt, this painting best captures the collaborative nature of their friendship. Leaning forward in her chair, Cassatt fans out a group of photographs before her, as if in the midst of discussing them with her portraitist.