“During Mary Cassatt’s early Impressionist period, she frequently focused on the activities of middle-class women in society—at the theater or taking tea, for example. At first glance, the arresting painting ‘On a Balcony’, which was shown in the 1880 Impressionist exhibition, appears to depict a woman in a public setting. However, the blue rail of the balcony, visible near the top of the painting, defines the enclosed space of a private garden, while the woman’s morning dress further indicates the intimacy of her location. Cassatt signaled the modernity of her subject through the woman’s choice of reading material; she peruses a newspaper rather than a novel. Even at home Cassatt’s subjects are connected to the contemporary world, not lost in a fictional fantasy.“
Art Institute of Chicago
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Mary Cassatt at wikimedia commons
Mary Cassatt at Art Institute of Chicago
Works by Mary Cassatt at Nationa Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
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Excellent condensed biography of Mary Cassatt at American Heritage written by David Lowe
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At Sunnyside - Where Truth and Beauty Meet 
Reblogged this on penwithlit.
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❤️😎
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😎🙏
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Mary Cassatt has always been one of my favorites! Beautiful painting. And I love your observations about the newspaper.
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I love her artwork, too — and I collect images of women reading, so this has always been a favorite. Thanks for visiting. 🙂
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🙂
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Simply beautiful – grand summer wishes to you!
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Thank you, Mary – Have a wonderful summer, too! 🌻
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Yes, I love her work too – there was a big exhibition of a large collection of her paintings at the Philadelphia Art museum, last year (she was born here in PA, even though she spent much of her adult life in France, so I think they consider her homegrown!) and I went and drooled over them – her fave subject matter is right up my street and it was so fun to see the same models over and over in different works and at different times in their lives and get a sense of her family and friends.
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What a wonderful experience, Hilda! I would definitely claim her as homegrown, too. Thanks for sharing. 🌻
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