Distance: 5.5 miles
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| Mary Cassatt's chateau at Bacheviller's |
So as impressed as Ciwt is by Mary Cassatt's boldly experimental, technically proficient and downright fetching art, she is just as impressed with Cassatt's business acumen.
Yes, Cassatt came from wealth. Her father was a highly successful stockbroker in Pennsylvania and her mother came from a prominent banking family. Yes, her family placed emphasis on education and success, but, for Mary that meant preparing to be a good wife and mother. This was expected of all proper women, not preparing for what Mary had firmly in mind - a career in art. In fact, her father was so firmly against her ambition to paint professionally he refused to give her any money that would go towards buying her art supplies.
He did agree to provide food, clothing and shelter which of course was huge and must have necessitated major bargaining on Mary's part. But even more huge were the obstacles to a 19th century independent woman artist in Paris gaining any degree of financial independence. Difficult enough for a man who was able to go to art school and associate with other artists at bars, cabarets and other public gathering places. But Cassatt persisted, copying at the Louvre when she wasn't allowed to paint live nudes, working with private teachers and learning from her friend and champion Degas. She also employed her strategic financial wiles, including selecting, posing and painting irresistably adorable children with loving caretakers in her studio, to gain commissions. All this until she was, indeed, self-supporting as an artist.
Ciwt suspects Cassatt's father came to have great respect for his daughter.
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