CASSATT, MARY (1855-1926), American artist, was born at Pittsburgh, (Pa.), a sister of A. J. Cassatt, president of the Pennsylvania railroad. In 1875 she went to Europe to study art, spending some time in Spain, afterwards proceeding to Paris, where she was greatly influenced by Manet, Renoir, Degas and the Impressionist school. Her first exhibition in Paris was in 1893 at the gallery of M. Durand-Ruel, where in later years her works were frequently exhibited. She also contributed to the various exhibitions of the Impressionist school, but never to the salons. Her work was warmly appreciated in French artistic circles. Mothers and babies or children were to her the chief subjects of inspiration, and her pictures are distinguished by great firmness in drawing and boldness of tone and colour. As a pastellist she attained high rank. Exhibitions of her works have been held in New York and Pittsburgh, and she is represented in the public art galleries of the United States and in private collections. She died in June, 1926.
See Achille Legard, Un Peintre des Enfants et les Meres: Mary Cassatt, illustrated (1913) ; Mary Cassatt, Painting; Bulletin of the Rhode Island School of Design, vol. v.; L. W. Hanemeyer, The Cassatt Exhibition; Pennsylvania Museum Bulletin, 1927, vol. xxii.