Impressions of Mary Cassatt’s 93 Works in San Francisco

If your first thought of Mary Cassatt’s work are paintings of mothers and children reproduced on the cover of your grandmother’s address book, you are not alone. However, if you happen to wander into Mary Cassatt at Work on now at the Legion of Honor, your view on her work is about to change. Not only did Cassatt manage to bust into the boy’s club of the Impressionists, she did it on her own terms as a fiercely professional artist and early feminist. 

93 works on loan from museums all over the world greet you as you enter the space. A painting of a woman at the Paris Opera caught my attention first. She sat clutching opera glasses, eyes glued to the stage with a secret smile. Across the way, a gentleman could be seen spying on her with his own opera glasses. The woman was either unaware or uncaring of his gaze, and that was a relief. If the nude woman seated in the leaves among fully clothed men in Manet’s Luncheon in the Grass ever left you with a bit of the ick, then this painting of a woman, uncaring of a man’s attention is a soothing balm. 

Prints heavily inspired by an exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints at Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1890 fill up an entire room. Cassatt’s prints have a unique quality to them and her process was extremely ambitious. Be sure to watch the film at the beginning of the exhibition to learn more. Many of the paintings mimic the photography of the time. In my opinion, the influence of Petzval lenses can be seen in the paintings. The center of the works were painted sharply in focus before disintegrating into less defined edges. Portraits taken with them were the height of fashion at the time and she would have seen a lot of them in her social group. 

The Impressionist movement rebelled against the popular painting of the time. The art world steeped itself in the traditional painting style of the academies with the goal of painting historical scenes. Impressionists such as Monet, Cassatt, and her friend Degas sought to change this by capturing ephemeral moments and lights and color. Cassatt’s intense work ethic led her to become an accomplished painter, pastelist and printmaker. Her unique way of painting helped shape the French Impressionist movement. Cassatt’s images of “women’s work” include scenes of knitting and needlepoint, bathing children, and nursing infants. These scenes are often accused of being sentimental while the water lilies and ballet dancers of her peers are granted more acceptance. 

While the “work” in these images isn’t always what women aspire to today, they rebelled against the acceptable depictions of women in art at the time. Almost photojournalistic in nature, subjects appear in imperfect light. These women are neither sexualized objects or symbolically placed on a pedestal of virtue. They are simply living their life. Fierce experimentation and subtle challenges to societal norms such as the “Modern Madonnas” series pepper the show. This exhibition gave me a new understanding and respect for Mary Cassatt. It is most definitely worth a visit. This is the first North American retrospective in 25 years and the show at the Legion of Honor will be the only place to see it on the West Coast. The show will run until January 26, 2025.

Mary Cassatt at Work
October 5, 2024 – January 26, 2025
To plan your visit the Legion of Honor’s website.