Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas shared a kindred sensibility toward making art in the 19th century not surprisingly because they came from similar backgrounds—privileged and born into cultivated upper-middle class banking families. Economic independence afforded Cassatt the luxury to devote her time entirely to being an artist, live a particular life style, pursue a career in a world ruled by men, as well as choose her destiny outside the boundaries of marriage. Few women of her day could claim an art education starting at the early age of fifteen studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in Philadelphia. Exasperated by the patronizing attitude of its male students and its teachers, exclusion from study of live nude models, as and sluggish teaching methods, Cassatt left the Academy and turned to the Old Masters. Moreover, she moved to Paris in 1866 with her mother and a family of friends, who acted as proper chaperones. xxxxxx

A European Tour was a fashionable pursuit for young women of means to do after the Civil War; however, most stayed in the ‘City of Light’ for only two years before returning to America, resuming a more traditional life. Living in Paris was not an automatic entry ticket to the Bohemian lifestyle, though Cassatt determined to align herself with reputable artists and the avant-garde scene. Soon, her work bypassed the pervasive subject matter and art styles of her time, and in their place, opted to depict the evolving lives of women using novel art techniques.

Women were not allowed to attend the École des Beaux-Arts, but Mary Cassatt was in a financial position to become an independent student of Jean-Leon Gérôme. Thomas Eakins was also one of his students and had studied with Cassatt at the Pennsylvania Academic of Fine Art. In addition to receiving formal art lessons, Cassatt acquired a ‘copying permit’ where she spent hours studying and copying master paintings at the Louvre. Since women of the Victorian Age were not permitted to join the avant-garde crowd of the Parisian Café’s, the Louvre functioned as a type of social center for French and American female students alike, thus providing Cassatt with yet another advantage to pursue her creative interests and to network with other artists.

Although she returned to the United States in 1870, within two years, Cassatt received a prominent commission from the archbishop in Parma to copy certain of Correggio works. Now back in Europe and eventually to Paris, she was accepted to show in the Salon, the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts between 1872 and 1874. This was a major achievement for any young American regardless of sex gender.

Mary Cassatt became aware of Degas’s paintings in the early 1870s when she viewed a pastel of his in Durand-Ruel’s art gallery. Edgar Degas first observed Cassatt’s work, Ida, the head of a woman wearing a Spanish mantilla, in the 1874 Salon exhibition, but he not yet had met her. Over subsequent years Cassatt’s work evolved toward Impressionism, though the Salon had twice rejected it. By 1877, Degas was determined to meet Cassatt, making a call to her studio near Montmartre. He not only felt a shared artistic like-mindedness with this painter, but also a familiarity with the comfortable ambience of her environment, filled with Turkish carpets and beautifully-framed paintings. When leaving the artist’s studio, Degas convinced her not to send any future work to the Salon, inviting her, instead, to exhibit with the Independents, the group founded by the Impressionists. This was the beginning of a special, 40-year friendship, founded on respect and admiration. At the onset, Cassatt was studying in Paris—while at forty three, Degas was an established painter in the Paris art world. As quoted in the press release of the National Gallery of Art, “Cassatt stated that her first encounter with Degas’s art “changed my life.” Degas, upon seeing Cassatt’s art for the first time, reputedly remarked, “there is someone who feels as I do.” For the next decade, the two were inseparable, often seen at various functions.”

The exhibition Degas/Cassatt, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, was organized by curator Kimberly A. Jones, associate curator of French paintings. It istightly orchestrated to reveal this special relationship through judiciously selected works by both artists. It includes 70 pieces in a variety of media that are organized thematically in four galleries. The emphasis is on the highpoint of Degas and Cassatt’s artistic alliance—the late 1870s through the mid-1880s. The centerpiece of this display is, Little Girl in a Blue Armchair (1878). Whereas Degas had admired this painting, Cassatt recalled that he had made suggestions and “even worked on the background.” In 1903, Mary Cassatt wrote to her dealer, Ambroise Vollard, that Degas had indeed collaborated in executing this composition. This letter is seen alongside the canvas in the show. What exactly that collaboration might have entailed remained an enigma until now.

The specific nature of the alliance is a highpoint of this exhibition. As the conservation department at the NGA carefully cleaned this painting, their meticulous analysis of the picture’s brush strokes revealed that the changes beneath the painterly surface and evidenced Degas’s contribution. Cutting-edge technical analysis to examine key works by both artists, led the team of scientists, conservationists and curators to conclude that Degas was unquestionably physically involved with the final composition of this work. According to the National Gallery conservator Ann Hoenigswald, “We used X-rays, infrared imaging and magnification to study a diagonal — unusual in a Cassatt background — that builds across the canvas from that rear corner window. We looked at it, and indeed the strokes were a little bit different. They were these sharp, small, quick strokes that we weren’t seeing anywhere else,” Hoenigswald says. [1] The upper diagonal, deep space of the painting is Degas’s contribution that shaped the final outcome of the painting; he transformed a flat wall into a corner and opened up the tightly organized composition to ambient light with his inclusion of windows. He created an unusual perspective of the room with the use of angled blue couches in its far left corner. Kimberly Jones said, “What Degas did was very discrete, very subtle, and then he left it to her to resolve.” [2]

The exhibition’s first gallery showcases an assortment of works by both painters spanning many years. Here the viewer observes each artist’s appetite for the use of new materials, effects and approaches. Degas’s voracious propensity for experimentation in a variety of materials and media, ranging from gouache, pastels, metallic paints and distemper, is evident and inspired Cassatt to experiment beyond the medium of oil and other traditional academic methods. The piece, At the Theater (1878/1879), demonstrates commanding, broad strokes of pastel applied over gouache and shimmering metallic paints. It is believed that Cassatt was the first artist to use metallic paint on canvas; ordinarily it was employed in decorative crafts.

Degas also used metallic materials in his decorative fans, concluding that Cassatt may have influenced him. Although the metallic has tarnished over time in Cassatt’s work, it nonetheless contributes to the lovely portrayal of her shy subject. Degas’s, Portrait after a Costume Ball (Portrait of Madame Dietz Monnin), 1879, manifests radical experimentation with his gestural strokes of pastel, charcoal and metallic paint, but is an unflattering portrayal of its sitter, who rejected the painting by accusing the artist of rendering her, as if drunk, or a ‘lady of the night’. The influences of each artist ran jointly as evident in these pieces.

Two dynamic works in this section include Cassatt’s, Portrait of Alexander Cassatt and His Son Robert Kelso Cassatt (1884) and Degas’s picture of his Italian relatives, Henri Degas and His Niece Lucie Degas (1875-76). The dates of both images are important. In each, the artist uses bold blacks for the subjects’ clothing. Degas became known for his confident application of black throughout his oeuvre whereas it was not a common component in Cassatt’s earlier palette. One might credit Degas with influencing her to adopt its use. A distinct difference also exists between the compositions as revealed in both artists’ approaches toward gesture and intimacy. Cassatt’s subjects meld together, interlocked in an intense moment of reading, while Degas’s uncle and cousin keep a distance, even further separated by a chair.

Ronald Pickvance in the volume The New Painting: Impressionism, 1874-1886 (1986), quotes Gustave Caillebotte’s letter to Monet subsequent to the closing of the fourth Impressionist exhibition in 1879: “Our profit amounts to 439.50 francs for each of us . . . We had more than 15,400 admissions.” Benefiting from this economic flush from the 4th Independent exhibition Degas envisioned producing Le Jour et La Nuit, a journal of original prints in black and white, focusing on light and shadow. He invited several colleagues to experiment in printmaking from the autumn of 1879, through spring of 1880. Although the journal never materialized, viewers in the second gallery witness an array of the resulting prints by Cassatt and Degas. Degas already adept as a print maker acted as a mentor, while encouraging Cassatt to explore soft ground etching.

A highlight by Degas is his, Actresses in Their Dressing Rooms (1879/1880), an etching and aquatint exposing his glimpse of the hidden, behind-the-scenes world of the theatre, and private moments of performers as they prepare for the stage. Another interesting work is, Café Concert aux Ambassadeurs (1879), rendered both in black and white and later in another version with color overlaid over an existing print, in 1885. The latter becomes the stronger composition because of dramatic use of light and the accent of color enhances the central female figure that lilts on a diagonal and defines the space.

Challenged to create the imagery for this journal, Cassatt had confidently experimented with the new medium. Although these early prints do not share the power and punch of her noteworthy, 1890’s Japanese-influenced images of mothers and children, her initial endeavors reveal a willingness to delve into the unknown.

Much of Cassatt’s work and subjects were scripted by her position in society. As a ‘proper lady’ she was confined to the ‘upper boxes’ and the world of women for subjects. In, Lady in Black in a Loge, Facing Right, and In the Opera Box, the artist demonstrates an her adeptness in employing multiple techniques, while capturing the essences of women at the Paris Opera, sequestered from the crowds in their private boxes, veiled with flowers, fans and opera glasses.

The section on Collecting and Exchanges is thought provoking, especially in seeing two major works that had been exchanged between the two artists. Cassatt’s, Girl Arranging Her Hair (1886), was shown in the final Impressionist exhibition, following which she made a gift of it to Degas. In exchange, he gave her, Woman in a Shallow Tub (1885), a work depicting a crouching bather that he described as being the best of his controversial nudes, and one that Cassatt admired. While the latter is more groundbreaking, Cassatt’s painting illustrates a resolved strength and progression in her painting. This piece hung prominently in Degas’s home until his death.

Above, left: Mary Cassatt, ‘Girl Arranging Her Hair’ (1886), oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Chester Dale Collection; Above, right: Edgar Degas, ‘Woman in a Shallow Tub’ (1885), charcoal and pastel on pale green wove paper now discolored to warm gray (adhered to silk bolting in 1951). Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Havemeyer Collection, 29.100.41

Among highlights in the current show are Edgar Degas’s, Scene From, the Steeplechase, The Fallen Jockey (1866 [reworked 1880-1881 and c. 1897]), a dramatically ambitious, early piece demonstrating the artist’s classical academic training and leanings toward Modernism. Moreover, his range of subject matter emphasizes his modern approach, for he favored the common settings of ballet dancers, laundresses, milliners and horse races. One observes a fluid spontaneity of line and brush strokes working to reveal the complexity of a tragic scene of a fallen horseman, as the fleeting horses race around him. The organization of the central composition and placement of the collapsed jockey, underfoot, within the warm, reddish palette, captures the seriousness of the moment. The realistic facial expression on the fallen man further demonstrates Degas’s astute awareness of competing medium of photography.

Curiously, this aggressive canvas is bordered by Cassatt’s two meticulous, sweet paintings of women and children picking apples in Edenic orchards. This juxtaposition is significantly telling of their increasing strained relationship in the 1890s, as their artistic interests diverged—Degas evolved toward abstraction, while Cassatt continued on the path of restrained figurative realism. Additionally, each artist held opposing views about the Dreyfus Affair, contributing to their ideological chasm. This controversial political and judicial scandal divided late-19th century French society. “These arguments split the upper and the educated classes—dividing even the Impressionists, the anti-Dreyfusards, Degas and Renoir, drawing daggers with Pissarro and Monet.” [3]

Cassatt’s, Young Woman in Black (Portrait of Madam J), 1883, is a stunning portrait as well as enigmatic image. It calls to mind Degas’s portrayal of Cassatt, Portrait of Miss Cassatt, Seated, Holding Cards (c. 1879–1884), notably because of the frontal positioning of the subject and an indifferent, mysterious expression on the subject’s face. The jet-black clothing of the sitter not only augments the illuminated face, but also the entire space she occupies, as well.

Despite the importance of the discovery of the Degas and Cassatt collaboration in Little Girl in a Blue Armchair, the grande finale of this exhibition is housed in the last gallery titled, Mary Cassatt at The Louvre. It functions ‘show within a show,’ exclusively dedicated to Degas’s imagery of Cassatt and women. For his journal Le Jour et la nuit, Degas envisioned multiple prints that he produced of Cassatt at the Louvre. Here we see numerous versions of this study [perhaps 20 were produced]. There, the flat areas of color and off-center placement of the subject, in a compressed space, conceivably stem from Degas’s interest in Japanese prints. A selection of these images, displaying back views of Cassatt leaning on a parasol, fills an entire wall in the gallery, along with drawings and a related oil canvas. Cassatt became was a subject that he repeatedly revisited during the robust years of their friendship.

Degas’s friend once observed that “With a back we can discover a temperament, an age, a social position…” Some believe that statement perhaps inspired Degas to produce countless portrayals of Cassatt’s from behind— wearing a large hat, fashionable jacket, lengthy skirt, small waist, with her right hand and arm leaning on an umbrella. Degas’s virtuosity at portraiture is seen in the prints and painting that features Mary Cassatt in her favorite site—the Louvre—depicting her ever-confident poise. Her trim figure is accentuated by a seated woman, perhaps her sister, Lydia, and despite a provocative pose, and her unseen visage, we know that it is, certainly, Cassatt. Degas wrote in his notebooks: “Her slender erect figure, neatly tailored, and her crisply furled umbrella all convey to us something of Mary Cassatt’s tense, energetic character.” [4]

The wall opposite these works transmits a powerful statement with its three distinct paintings, each displaying a unique moment by revealing Degas’ bold compositional arrangements. Portrait of Miss Cassatt, Seated, Holding Cards (1876–1878), is a forceful likeness of Cassatt representing an unconventional woman, who appears leaning forward and about to leave, with an expression of anger or distaste. Although the painting hung in her studio for three decades and was respected for its artistic qualities, she finally sold it in 1912 because, in it Cassatt saw an image of herself as a repugnant person and didn’t want to identity with it.

Left: Edgar Degas, ‘Mary Cassatt’ (c. 1879-1884), oil on canvas, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Gift of the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation and the Regents’ Major Acquisitions Fund, Smithsonian Institution. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution / Art Resource, NY

Woman Viewed from Behind (Visit to a Museum), 1879-1885, is perhaps also a portrait of Cassatt in which Degas presents a woman caught in a moment of deep concentration. In Visit to a Museum (1879-90), two women (possibly they are of Cassatt and her sister) are seriously engaged in taking in the works at the Louvre but what they are viewing remains ambiguous. The focus on the two figures primarily demonstrates this artist’s observation of them in a quiet moment—but one that will not last.

In 1894 Gustave Geffroy wrote, that Cassatt was one of “les trois grandes dames” of Impressionism, alongside Marie Bracquemond and Berthe Morisot. [5] There is no doubt that Mary Cassatt was an extraordinary female painter, one of the most celebrated and respected by many of her male colleagues at that time. She was truly a new kind of nineteenth-century expatriate woman who was not afraid to go against the grain of social expectation. A testimony to her esteem was her inclusion in the 1893 Chicago World Columbian Exhibition and Fair where she produced a 58 x 12-foot mural for the Gallery of Honor in the Women’s Building. Sadly it was lost! Moreover, in 1913 Mary Cassatt exhibited a painting entitled, Mère et enfant (1903), at the 1913 Armory Show, even though by this time she was then moving away from painting and had become more concerned with women’s rights.

The National Gallery of Art’s revelatory exhibition of Degas/Cassatt both celebrates a unique friendship of equality between the two artists during a time of feminine bias, yet it nevertheless demonstrates that Degas remains the stronger of the two artists. His freedom to interact with a vast world outside the realm of women’s restricted confines of the “proper,” only added to his strength as an artist, affording him a richer range of subject matter and life experience. This show is a jewel in the crown of the National Gallery of Art, and undoubtedly exemplifies through the art, how close the shared history of the Degas/Cassatt’s joint artistic venture truly was during Paris’s Belle Epoche.

By Elaine A. King, Ph.D., Contributing Writer

 

Degas/Cassatt

National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Through October 5, 2014

http://www.nga.gov/

Dr. King is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, teaching the History of Art, Theory & Museum Studies. She lives in the Washington, DC area.

Footnotes:

[1] Impressionists With Benefits? The Painting Partnership Of Degas And Cassatt, Susan Stamberg, NPR May 23, 2014

[2] The National Gallery of Art uncovers the true relationship between Impressionist Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas (and it wasn’t romantic), Sadid Dingfelder, The Washington Post, May 14, 2014.

[3] Adam Gopnik, “Trial of the Century, Revisiting the Dreyfus affair”, New Yorker, September 28, 2009, (online review), http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2009/09/28/090928crbo_books_gopnik.

[4] Quoted in Edgar Degas, Degas The Artist’s Mind, Theodore Reff, from Degas’s notebooks (notebook 33, p. 8), Metropolitican Museum of Art, Harper & Row Publishers, New York,  1976, p. 132.

[5] Geffroy, Gustave (1894), “Histoire de l’Impressionnisme”, La Vie artistique: 268