Mary Cassatt (May 22, 1844 – June 14, 1926)

Bookmark and Share
                                                                                                            
The Caress
1902 

One of the great Impressionists, Cassatt was known for depicting children, often in relation to their parents. Two criticisms of Cassatt are that her art was often very sentimental and that, in her later life, she was too set against the newer forms of painting (i.e. Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, etc.). While I think taste in art is subjective and can't be faulted (or not easily so), I would say the criticism of sentimentality, when looking at her whole body of work, is unavoidably true. Still, she was able to create beautiful works in her own style, whose most sentimental pieces are astoundingly well done. 

The Letter
c. 1891

Child Drinking Milk
c. 1868

Girl Arranging Her Hair
1886

Autumn
1880

Little Girl in a Blue Armchair
1878

Spanish Dancer Wearing a Lace Mantilla
1873