The spirit of Art Gives thrives on the collective power of artists throughout time. An artistic trailblazer who stands out in history for her revolutionary spirit and artistic creativity is the illustrious Mary Cassatt, Impressionist artist, who was always one step ahead of her time. While women of the 19th century infrequently attended art school, at age 16 Mary enrolled in the prestigious Philadelphia Academy of the Fine Arts. There she found that fellow students and the male faculty treated her rudely and disrespectfully. This felt disappointing and hurtful, but left Mary more determined to pursue art in her own way.
Having been born into a rich family in the outskirts in Allegany Pennsylvania, Mary had been in Europe several times with her family as a child. In 1866 she decided to return to the heart of the art world, Paris, where she hoped to learn and thrive as an artist on her own terms. Despite opposition from her parents and unusual for a single woman, she set out to learn from the budding Impressionist artists living in Europe at that time.
It didn’t take long before Mary had established herself as one of several Impressionist painters in Paris. She studied independently and supplemented her formal training by learning directly from other painters and attending exhibitions. Art is often made best in community, and so was it for Mary Cassatt. Her art flourished alongside others, and her strong collaborations with other Impressionist artists was a huge help. Her work was dreamlike, and she excelled at capturing the momentary atmosphere of her subject.
Cassatt chose to paint real life images such as women and children, and not in pose but as they were living. Her paintings invite us to observe intimate images of life as it was at the time. Her work is truly magnificent, and for many living at that time, revolutionary. Her paintings redefined the relationship between women and children. Raised to be a wife and mother like other young women of her age and social status, Mary was hardly domestic in any way. Instead, she was on her own road drumming to her own beat.
Mary Cassatt’s career was impacted when she was noticed by Edgar Degas, famous Impressionist. Enamored with her work and in awe of her artistic abilities, Degas asked Cassatt to exhibit with the other Impressionists in his exhibition of 1877. This was a huge honor and set the stage for future successes.
Perhaps because she was a woman, not everyone loved her paintings, and they were not accepted by everyone. Disillusioned, Mary decided to continue independently. Her innovative work did sell well throughout Europe as well as the United States, so no real harm done in the end.
While the world of art was being revolutionized, politics at home in the United States were also passing through a revolutionary moment. The suffrage movement in particular, advocating for the right to vote for women, was the focus for hundreds of thousands of women (and men too!) around the turn of the century.
Mary Cassatt had always promoted women and children throughout her life through her art, so it should come to no surprise to anyone that Mary Cassatt was a strong supporter of the suffrage movement. One way that Cassatt did this was by adopting the sunflower symbol in her work. The sunflower had become the symbol of the women’s suffrage movement, having been the official symbol of the National American Woman Suffrage Association since 1896.
Cassatt painted her famous Woman with a Sunflower painting sometime around 1905. From then on it seems as if sunflowers were included on official and promotional suffrage materials. The fact that Mary prominently displayed the sunflower in her work was consistent with her work in support the suffrage movement, Mary was never afraid to use her work to advance h cause, as she was not afraid to use her financial resources to do so.
Suffering from advanced diabetes that was affecting her eyesight, Cassatt relocated back to the US. Animated by the suffragettes who were dedicated to securing the vote for women, Mary decided that she could help the women’s suffrage movement by organizing an art show to raise money for the movement. With her collaboration with Degas as strong as ever, she saw this as a way to raise the previous dollars needed for the movement that she had passionately adopted as her own. It was 1915.
Having learned of Mary’s intention to donate the proceeds from the show to the movement, Cassatt’s brothers refused to release the art that they had been holding from her exhibition, and even did their best to discourage people from patronizing the show. Despite their shenanigans, the show went on, and many of Cassatt’s more recent paintings were sold. The show had been a wonderful success and adequate money for the suffrage movement was successfully raised.
Cassatt made one final attempt to fulfill the Art Gives message by making sure that her paintings would find their permanent home in museums for public admiration after her death. As painting were sold, there was always a stipulation that her paintings would ultimately be housed in a place where they could be revered by the public, for all to enjoy and savor.
