Mary Cassatt is an impressionist artist who is consistently regarded as one of art history’s most famous female painters. She was an unmarried American woman living in Paris, but that didn't stop Cassatt from making a name for herself in the male-dominated movement, defying 19th-century gender expectations and paving the way for future female artists. Understanding the context of her art is an important aspect of appreciating her role in both Impressionism and in the realm of modern art.
In this important work of her mature career, Cassatt chose to portray a young girl alone in a domestic interior. The visible brushwork and the figure's informal pose are trademarks of Impressionism. Impressionism is the asymmetrical composition, raised viewpoint, shallow space, and abrupt cropping of the scene all indicate the influence of Japanese art. Cassatt also brings her own observations to the construction of this image. The girl is seated in a sprawling, unselfconscious manner that reminds the viewer of her young age, and the way that she is sunk in by the adult furniture around her evokes the awkwardness and isolation of certain stages of childhood.
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