August 2007
Volume 1, Number 8

Inside this issue...

Artist Of The Month: Mary Cassatt
Art In The News 
Outside The Lines
Segmation News

Artist Of The Month: Mary Cassatt 

The family's foreign travels left a lasting impression on Cassatt and, at the age of sixteen, she announced that she wanted to study art, a revolutionary move for a woman of her times who was expected simply to marry well and raise a family. But Mary managed to convince her parents and in 1861 was admitted to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where she studied for four years before returning to Europe with her mother, settling in Paris in 1875.

Cassatt's early years in Paris were the happiest time of her life. Not only was the French capital the center of the art world but the city itself was changing and influencing the artists living there, who now chose to celebrate modern life in their subjects.

Soon after settling in the city, Mary Cassatt came to know the Impressionist painter, Edgar Degas, who was to remain a lifelong friend. He had considerable influence on her work and introduced her to other painters of the group. Under their influence Mary began to use light colors and started working in pastels; her subject matter changed and she painted contemporary women going about their daily lives.

Degas invited her to exhibit in the Impressionist show of 1879 and she remained part of the Impressionist group until 1886. Cassatt was instrumental in introducing Impressionist art into the United States: she not only bought her friends' paintings when they were in need, but she also used her connections with wealthy American families to encourage them to buy Impressionist art. Some of the great Impressionist collections now in American museums are a result of her intervention. Her own paintings were also exhibited in the USA and were well reviewed by American critics.

In the mid-1880s Mary's style evolved and she began to move away from Impressionism and experiment with other media, but she always remained faithful to her theme of mother and child. The 1890s were Cassatt's most important years. Not only was her art gaining recognition, but she was also an advisor to important American art collectors. She became an accomplished printmaker during that decade and in 1891 held her first one-woman show at a private gallery in Paris. The works she exhibited there used bolder colors and were strongly influenced by Japanese prints that had been shown at an exhibition in Paris in 1890.

Cassatt continued to create many paintings and pastels into the early years of the twentieth century, but after a disastrous visit to Egypt in 1912, during which her brother died, her health began to deteriorate. Unable to work due to failing eyesight she retired to the South of France during the First World War where she lived in seclusion and almost total blindness until her death in 1926. The French government awarded her the Légion d'Honneur in 1904 as recognition of her contribution to the arts.

Art In The News

Sir Winston Fetches A Cool Million

Source: Telegraph

Outside The Lines

Trivia: The Impressionists

Mary Cassatt's brother, Alexander, was president of the Pennsylvania Railroad from 1899 until his death in 1906. Mary was so distraught after her brother's death that she did not paint again until 1912.

The first museum of modern art in the United States was located on the upper floor of a private residence in Washington, DC. It was started roughly around 1870 to house works by the Impressionists and the gallery was opened to the public in 1921 under the name of the Phillips Collection, where it remained until 1970. The Museum of Modern Art in New York didn't open until 1929.

Everyone knows that Berthe Morisot was a French Impressionist painter. But did you know that she was the great-niece of French Rococo painter Fragonard and that she was married to Edouard Manet's brother, Eugene?

The Impressionists were given their name by a contemporary art critic, who declared that one of Claude Monet's paintings, called Impression at Sunrise, appeared unfinished and sketchy.

Hello painters!

Our SegPlayPC™ collection of pattern sets is growing strong. We've recently released "Edgar Degas - Modern Artist, par excellence", "Fresh Fruit", and "Puffy P" , a supercute collection of pop culture artwork, done by award winning artist, Pilar Erika Johnson.

Be sure to stop and check out our new Segmation Video Gallery where we've compiled a bunch of nicely done YouTube movies relating to painting and fine art. You'll definitely get inspired when you watch the "Painting with Food" videos!!