Artist of the Week - Mary Cassatt

Born: May 22, 1844

Died:  June 14, 1926

She was born into a wealthy family, and is considered an American Artist even though at the age of 7 her family moved to Europe.  Her parents wanted the children to be exposed to Art.  Which Mary thought was wonderful.  

She was an Impressionist artist, but what made her unique and stand apart from her fellow artists was the subjects of her pictures.  Most Impressionist painted landscape, but Mary loved to draw Mothers and their children doing everyday life.

 Breakfast in Bed (1897)

 Sleepy Baby (1910)

The Child's Bath (1893)

She not only painted, but also tok up the art form of wooden block print.  This is her work called The Bath - Wooden Block print.

We watched this short video about Mary Cassatt.

Her paintings expressed the special bond between mother and child.  This type of pictures of was unknown at this time period, because most people did not speak of these relationships.  

This type of portrait would still cause controversy today. (Nursing her Baby, 1908)

For our project, I really decided against wooden block print.  It seemed a bit of a daunting task for a 7 year old.  And I don't trust myself with sharp tool anymore.  I sliced my hand open with a box knife a couple weeks ago trying to make a hammock for American Girl Club.  So for her project, Lydia used our pastels to draw a mother and her child.

Her favorite subjects, our friend April and her son Vinny.  Vinny has food on his face and April is cleaning it off.

It was fun to see that art can show everyday life as beautiful.  Our next artist will be John Singer Sargen...Painter of the Wealthy.