Cassatt. Nathalia Brodskaya
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in the artist’s words. She was always proud of her native Pittsburgh, a steel town destined to become one of the most prosperous cities in the United States. Her ancestors were among those who settled this land beginning in the 1700’s, and they had many great achievements. Mary’s father, Robert Simpson Cassatt (1806–1891) was a banker, although, according to her own words, he “did not have the heart of a businessman at all.”
After the Bullfight
1873
Oil on canvas, 82 × 64 cm
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
He devoted much energy to the upbringing of his children, and was successful in this as well, judging by their outstanding achievements. Mary was the fourth of his five children. Her older brother, Alexander Johnston Cassatt (1839–1906), carried on the family trade, and became president of the Pennsylvania Railroad. He was at the same time one of the main constructors of the New York Railroad and it was he who chose and implemented the plan for Central Station, which is considered to be an architectural masterpiece. As a businessman, he possessed the taste and the sophistication of a true artist. For many years, his reputation in America eclipsed the fame his sister had gained in art.
The Young Bride
1875
Oil on canvas, 87.6 × 69.9 cm
Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey.
Perhaps the fact that her father “was full of French ideas”, according to Mary, played a special role in his children’s upbringing. That is where one more secret of the Cassatt family is revealed. It so happens that Mary’s father’s ancestors brought French blood into the family. “‘My family is of French origin, Mary related, ‘‘Well before the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes – exactly in 1662 – a Frenchman named Cossart emigrated from France to Holland.” This Cossart settled in Leyde, where many documents regarding his family are found among the records of the Walloon Church. He later moved to Amsterdam before going to settle in the United States.
Mrs Duffee Seated on a Striped Sofa, Reading
1876
Oil on panel, 35 × 27 cm
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
And, naturally, it was not by accident that Cossart chose New Amsterdam as his new home in that distant land. The name of this city was the thread connecting him with Europe. His grandson settled in Pennsylvania, where the family, now known as Cassatt, remained for good. Mary’s father was the great-grandson of this first Pennsylvanian. However, it was not the father but the mother, Katherine Kelso Johnston (1816–1895), who nourished the yearning for the faraway, still unknown, but thrilling France in the family. The children once found in their home a letter written in flawless French by their mother at the age of twelve.
Portrait of Madame X Dressed for the Matinée
1878
Oil on canvas, 100 × 81 cm
Collection of Philip and Charles Hanes
Mary had good reason to claim that “…my mother was of French culture,” even though up to that point she had not yet travelled abroad. “She was partly looked after by an American lady who once lived in the boarding school of Madame Campan, an institution where there was a fairly large number of young women coming from imperial aristocracy,” Mary related, “Circumstances brought this lady to Pittsburgh, where she accepted several pupils. From her my mother learned to speak perfect French and all of her life she continued corresponding in French with those of her friends who spoke this language. She was extremely knowledgeable about general culture and literature.”
Portrait of the Artist
1878
Gouache on paper, 59.7 × 44.5 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
It was completely natural for this family to use any excuse for a trip to France. “The most distant of my memories is being a five or six-year-old girl, learning how to read in Paris,” Mary remembered. Her parents first took her overseas in 1851 when they needed medical consultation regarding the illness of one of the children. The family remained in Europe for about five years. They not only lived in Paris, but also managed to visit other European countries. It is known, for example, that they visited Heidelberg and Darmstadt in Germany. For a child, five years is a very long time. Mary wrote and spoke in French, was immersed in a French environment, and had many unforgettable experiences.
Children in the Garden
1878
Oil on canvas, 73.6 × 92.6 cm
Collection of Mr and Mrs Meredith J. Long
When the twelve-year-old girl returned home, she was no longer a naive, wide-eyed young American, and, possibly, her dreams about the future already involved France. In 1851, before leaving for Europe, the family moved from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, where the children had many more educational opportunities. In 1858, fourteen-year-old Mary entered the Pennsylvania Academy of Art, which she attended for five years. Later she was able to appreciate what the school had taught her: “At the Pennsylvania Academy, we drew imitations of ancient art and antique statues,” Mary recalled.
Little Girl in a Blue Armchair
1878
Oil on canvas, 89.5 × 129.8 cm
The National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C.
The schooling was probably limited to those first lessons offered by any art school. Mary was mature enough to realise the necessity of taking lessons from real professionals. In her opinion, “there was no education” at the Pennsylvania Academy. Indeed, in mid-nineteenth-century America, opportunities for artistic education were limited. In 1899, R. Mutter, one of the most renowned art historians of the nineteenth century, wrote that “until the United States declared independence (in 1776), America had neither painting nor sculpture. People ate and drank, built houses and reproduced. A piece of iron had more value than the best of statues, a yard of good fabric was preferred to Raphael’s Transfiguration.”
Woman Reading
1878
Oil on canvas, 78.7 × 58.9 cm
Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska
In the United States, it was impossible to get acquainted with the paintings of old European masters since there were no collections there yet. Some of the settlers brought family portraits with them from Europe, but nothing more. “Moreover,” continues Mutter, “Quakers denounced art, considering it worldly vanity. Only with time, when the dollar grew strong, did enterprising European portrait artists, who did not find luck at home, begin to appear in America.
In the Loge, at the Opera
1878
Oil on canvas, 81.2 × 66 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
They crossed the ocean to grace the New World