Women's History Month and Artist of the Week

"Well-behaved women seldom make history."
~ Laurel Thatcher Ulrich


This week,honoring American Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt

Mary Cassatt
Self Portrait
1878
gouche on paper 23x17in
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 May 22, 1844 – June 14, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker. She lived much of her adult life in France, where she first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists. Cassatt often created images of the social and private lives of women, with particular emphasis on the intimate bonds between mothers and children. see entire wiki entry here

From Mary Cassatt: The Complete Works:

Even though her family objected to her becoming a professional artist, Cassatt began studying painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the early age of fifteen, and continued her studies during the years of the American Civil War. Part of their concern may have been Cassatt's exposure to feminist ideas and the bohemian behavior of some of the male students, of which one was Thomas Eakins, later the controversial director of the Academy. About 20% of the students were female. Though most were not bent on making a career of art, they viewed art as a valid means of achievement and recognition, and a socially valuable talent. Cassatt, instead, was determined to become a professional artist.

 

Cassatt admired Degas, whose pastels had made a powerful impression on her when she encountered them in an art dealer's window in 1875. "I used to go and flatten my nose against that window and absorb all I could of his art," she later recalled. "It changed my life. I saw art then as I wanted to see it." 

 In 1891, she exhibited a series of highly original colored drypoint and aquatint prints, including Woman Bathing and The Coiffure, inspired by the Japanese masters shown in Paris the year before. (See Japonism) Cassatt was attracted to the simplicity and clarity of Japanese design, and the skillful use of blocks of color. In her intrepretation, she used primarily light, delicate pastel colors and avoided black (a "forbidden" color

Painted in Seville, Spain, this picture depicts a young woman serving a refreshing panale (honeycomb or sponge sugar dipped in water) to a bullfighter. Cassatt had traveled to Spain to study the work of Old Masters. With its bold handling of paint and rich colors, Offering the Panale demonstrates the influence of such seventeenth-century painters as Diego Velázquez.

Note: Though I detest bullfighting (despite my Iberian roots), I love this painting. The flirtateous stances of the bullfighter and the young woman and the way Cassatt was able to capture the essence of the bullfighter's doubtless superiority! The painting is also a very familiar one, as I've seen it dozens of times at the Clarke Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The bold color is amazing.

The above work by Mary Cassatt is also at the Clarke

More works by Mary Cassatt

The Boat Ride

(larger)

March is National Women's History Month

Honoring Mary Lyon

A schoolteacher from Massachusetts

 an American pioneer,a remarkable woman who founded the worldwide model of higher education for women-- 

Mount Holyoke College 

Though there are several women I could have chosen to honor, Mary Lyon was a "local" of my beloved western Massachusetts; born and raised in Buckland. Like me, an educator. She was the founder of my elder daughter's college-  Mount Holyoke, from which she graduated last year. Still a women's school and one the oldest of the few remaining in the U.S. MHC is no longer a seminary. One of my favorite poets and icons, Emily Dickinson, attended classes there from 1847-48. All of these things come together so seamlessly that it made sense for me to learn more about her and share it with you.

True to the spirit of Mary Lyon, my daughter, a poor girl, was able to attend a first-class liberal arts college where she honed her intellect and where her confidence and self-esteem were nurtured and her independent spirit encouraged and appreciated. As a woman and as her mother, I am grateful for that.

I can't say enough about both the college's academics and the spirit of achievement, success and pride that are celebrated there. Thank you, Mary Lyon, for being a trailblazer for women.

 The year, 1834, was a turning point for Mary Lyon. She decided to leave Ipswich Female Seminary, where she was assistant principal, and focus all of her time and efforts on founding an institution of higher education for women. For the next three years, she crusaded tirelessly for funds and support. It was not the best time to ask people for donations--the United States was in a severe economic depression. But Mary Lyon persisted. She wrote circulars and ads announcing the plan for the school, raised money, persuaded prominent men to back her enterprise, developed a curriculum, visited schools and talked to educators as far away as Detroit, chose the school's location, supervised the design and construction of a building, brought equipment, hired teachers, and selected students. She endured ridicule from those who felt her ambitious undertaking would be "wasted" on women. Her constant travels often left her in a state of exhaustion. Yet, Mary Lyon never doubted her belief that women deserved to have the same opportunities for higher education as their brothers.

Mary Lyon's innovative goals for Mount Holyoke set the Seminary apart from other female seminaries of the period. They were:

A curriculum equivalent to those at men's colleges.

A minimum entrance age of 17.

Low tuition to make education affordable to students from modest backgrounds. Mount Holyoke's was $60 a year.

 

In 1987, to commemorate the sesquecentennial of MHC, a Mary Lyon stamp was issued by the US Postal service. On the first day of issue, several kinds of envelopes were stamped and postmarked with the new stamp. All covers on this page were postmarked Feb 28, 1987 in South Hadley with a "First day of issue" postmark, and have a 2-cent Mary Lyon stamp on them, unless otherwise noted. 

What woman or women in history do you appreciate the most and why?