To be held on 15 June at 11.00 am.
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was the only American artist to exhibit with the French Impressionists in their independent exhibitions. When the artist, Edgar Degas, persuaded her to stop exhibiting work at the Paris Salon – the official art exhibitions in the capital – and to exhibit instead with his artistic colleagues, she stated that, ‘I accepted with joy… I hated conventional art.’ Cassatt went on to make outstanding contributions to four of the eight Impressionist exhibitions.
Like her Impressionist colleagues, Cassatt represented modern life, but the subjects suitable for a ‘respectable’ woman such as Cassatt were limited. However, Cassatt’s treatment of the traditionally acceptable subjects for women artists is both unconventional and thought provoking. Looking at paintings and prints, this lecture examines ways in which Cassatt – a professional woman artist in a male art world – produced idiosyncratic and significant avant-garde images of 19th century French society.
Joanne Rhymer
Since completing an MA at University College London (UCL) in the History of Art: Modernism and the Politics of Representation (1997), Jo Rhymer was employed in various roles at the National Gallery including Adult Learning Officer and the Head of Adult Learning Programmes. She has worked in prestigious learning departments in London galleries and museums. She currently lectures for the Institute of Continuing Education at University of Cambridge and the V&A and teaches for the Wallace Collection, the Centre for Lifelong Learning at the University of York as well as a range of private institutions.
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