Mary Cassatt Retrospective

Overview

The American-born woman artist, Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), was active in Paris during the latter-half of the 19th century. During a period when professional women artists were still rare, Cassatt carried through with her intention to become an artist and travelled to France to study painting. In France she searched for a new form of expression and participated in the Impressionist exhibitions where she established her own individual style of painting focusing on everyday family scenes as her subject matter. Cassatt’s works became highly recognized in both France and the United States, and in 1904 she received La Légion d’honneur Chevalier from the French government. Furthermore, Cassatt formed friendships with American art collectors such as the wealthy Louisine Havemeyer, becoming their advisor and contributing to the development of the American art scene.

Cassatt can be considered as one of the more popular Impressionist artists in Japan but she has mainly been recognized as a pioneer woman artist and as a painter of mother and child scenes, whilst her entire oeuvre still remains relatively unknown. The last Cassatt exhibition to be held in Japan was in 1981 and only a few of her works can be found in Japanese collections. This exhibition is the first large-scale retrospective exhibition of Cassatt’s works to be held in Japan in 35 years and will provide an important opportunity to show the artist’s works together.

The exhibition will display approximately 80 carefully selected works which will include oil paintings, prints, pastels and drawings, spanning from her early to late career, in three exhibition sections. In addition, the exhibition will show the works of contemporary artists of her time with whom Cassatt had interactions such as Edgar Degas and Berthe Morisot, and will examine their relationship with Cassatt. Furthermore, the exhibition will display the Byobu-e (folding screen) formerly belonging to Cassatt and also Ukiyo-e prints which influenced the artist, and will analyze in depth what Cassatt mastered from Japanese art.