Mother and Child, Mary Cassatt

Mother and Child
Mary Cassatt
1890

The figures that Mary Cassatt paints can be considered to be impressionistic, for many reasons; and can be compared to the greats such as Monet, Renoir, and Degas. I believe that Mary Cassatt was extremely successful when creating her impressionistic paintings because she follows all if not most of the rules for the impressionistic style. And on top of all that, she did it as an american in a foreign country.
For example, Mary Cassatt uses very heavy brushstrokes and a thicker application of paint when working on her canvas' and her colors dont always blend perfectly to help illustrate the fact that it was indeed painted and not photographed. Although her figures are very 3 dimensional (for the most part) her paintings are flat and layered. this is another component of impressionistic style art.
One thing that drew me to this artist was her subject choice of the mother's with their children. they all seem like a split second in the lives of these hard working mothers, and their rambunctious children. especially since some of these children were painted at such a young age, its hard to sit still for any given amount of time, let alone to pose for a painting! Thats a major heads up to the fact that this was painted with spontaneity and speed to get the right look of the child relaxing in his/her mother's arms.
The use of color in this painting is very soft and relaxing as well, and the rosy colors of the mothers dress couple together nicely with the pink of the child's cheeks. this same pink is also seen in the table cloth behind them, as well as in the shadows of the dress, and in the child's toes. I also really love how she painted the light blue wash bucket and pitcher each on either side of the mothers head. it balances out the pinks in the image nicely and can coincide with the childhood cliche colors of light pink and light blue. the sense we get of the light streaming in through the windows is also rather lovely, as its so subtle we barely notice it.  the slight highlights on the blue's as well as on the child's white shirt and a bit more on the mother's bodice of her dress.
 I believe that Mary Cassatt is equal to the greats of her time because she is able to take a simple snapshot portrait painting of a mother and child, and turn it into an impressionistic painting which is lovely in its own right. Monet and Renoir were masters with light and environments, as well as creating scenes with bright colors and intense brush strokes, but I truly believe that Mary Cassatt's work is equal in quality to both of them, because she was able to do all of this in a mans world; and still be successful. Its also really interesting to see how many different emotions she can evoke with the subject matter of a child with its mother; even to the point of empathizing with the painting, or even in some cases pulling the viewer into the art piece to the point where it is the viewers mother, or it is the viewers child. In these instances the viewers are invited to interact more with the paintings, and can make them easier to attract a following.
I mentioned earlier that this work illustrates almost all of the aspects for a impressionistic painting, however there are a few that arent represented. such as the Plein air, and it doesnt quite represent urbanized paris, but I truly believe that this painting takes the cake with all of the other aspects depicted; such as speed and thick brushstrokes, experimenting with light and color, and extreme realism to make it an instant one of my favorite paintings in this era. I also find it interesting that she was an american in paris, that still became successful with the style of art that was popular in paris at the time. No one in america at this point painted in an impressionistic style, so this to me is another reason why she is truly a impressionistic painter to be remembered along with the greats of her time.