Copy of Mary Cassatt, After Degas

 

Mary Cassatt, After Degas

@ 24" x 36"

Charcoal & Pastel

Casey Klahn

See my hommage to Mary Cassatt here.

Master Copies

Mary Cassatt, After Degas - detail
@ 32" x 26"
Charcoal
Casey Klahn

At the Easel

I like studying the master works of artists like Edgar Degas. This work is a copy of his well known Portrait of Mary Cassatt.

More Input Requested - (Bump) - Best Pastel Ever?

At the Theater

(also known as Lydia Cassatt Leaning on Her Arms, Seated in a Loge)

Mary Cassatt
Pastel
1879-1880

The "Greatest Pastel" question has raised a lot of interest, and you all know my own choice has been the Degas painting posted below. At Making a Mark, the subject is being raised again and moderated by Katherine Tyrrell on this post.

Someone at one of the forums that Katherine linked to mentioned the Cassatt work of Lydia Cassatt, and I was amazed at how much alike the contemporary Degas Green Singer work was to this.

La Chanteuse Verte, 1884
23.75 " x 18.25"
The Green Singer
Pastel
Edgar Degas

Which do you like better? I will offer my own opinion in a future post.

Note: See today's post at Pastel reviewing the Diane Townsend Pastel line.

Mary Cassatt

French Legion of Honor
Mary Cassatt
click here to listen

Mother Feeding Child, 1898
Mary Cassatt

Allow me to present: Mary Cassatt (1844 - 1926).

The account in Wikipedia of Cassatts' family resisting her choice of art as a profession, and her pressing her nose against the glass of the art dealer's window to see Degas' pastels and being transformed by seeing these watershed artworks, is enough to give you goosebumps. Then, to be invited by Degas to show with the Impressionists at the height of their powers in Paris - what a story! I don't know about today, but there certainly was a glass ceiling in the 19th century when our heroine came up. She was an American, living in Paris, who was invited to show in the Impressionist exhibitions.

She is another of the great lights whose eyesight failed in the latter years of their lives. Also in the significa department are her being honored with the French Legion d'honneur in 1904, and the naming of a Liberty Ship after the old girl during WW II. Wonderful recognitions of a worthy and great pastellist.

Cassatt Self Portrait, 1878

Admin note: Republished so that you may now comment.