BREAKFAST IN BED
Mary Cassatt
- Artist
- Mary Cassatt (1844–1926)
- Date
- 1897
- Dimensions
- 58.4 x 73.7 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens (gift of the Virginia Steele Scott Foundation)
Mary Cassatt is one of the most famous women painters in the history of art, and she is also special in that she was the only American who exhibited with the Impressionists on several occasions in the 1870s and 1880s. She was known for her depictions of mother and child, and Breakfast in Bed is perhaps one of the most moving examples. At first sight the painting is a tender but unsentimental scene of a mother and her child, but if we examine the picture more closely we can read much more into it. The mother’s attention is entirely focused on her child; she wraps her arms around the little girl as if to protect her from the world. The child’s gaze, however, is directed elsewhere, quite forgetful of her mother. Cassatt perfectly captures the heart-rending moment, inevitable for a mother, when the child will one day leave her for good.
Art Studies
Cassatt studied for four years at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, but she found the artistic environment too limited and provincial, so in 1866 she moved to Paris, the centre of the art world. She exhibited a few works, but they were not particularly successful, as she had not yet found her own style. In 1877 she met Edgar Degas, and this event radically changed her art. A close friendship developed between them, and the famous painter suggested that she join the Impressionist movement, which Cassatt gladly accepted.
Degas and the Impressionists
“No woman has the right to paint like that!” was Degas’ somewhat blunt remark about Cassatt’s works. But he meant it as enormous praise, since very few women painters were working at the time. Cassatt first saw Degas’ pictures in an art dealer’s window, and they captivated her completely. She knew at once that she too wanted to paint like that — freely, independently, full of life. Thanks to Degas, her debut with the Impressionists took place in 1879.
Features of Style
At first Cassatt worked with quick, loose brushstrokes in the Impressionist style, but after illnesses in her family her mood darkened. Her mother and sister moved to Paris in 1877, and both soon fell ill. Her mother recovered, but her sister died five years later, and the tragedy changed Cassatt’s outlook. Her most famous paintings, tender genre pictures depicting mother and child with deep sincerity, such as Breakfast in Bed, date from this time.
A Painter of Women
The role of women in society underwent significant change at the turn of the century, and Cassatt was extremely sensitive to the subject. This sets her apart from the other Impressionists: she alone showed interest in the intimate details of women’s lives, which is why Breakfast in Bed is so captivating. It makes the viewer curious: what is the mother really thinking, what is her life like, is she happy? At the same time it is worth mentioning that despite all her sympathy and understanding for mothers and their children, and disregarding the social customs of her time, she never married and never had children.
Ambassador of Art
Her reputation as a successful artist at home and abroad helped Cassatt take on an important role in the 1890s: she became an unofficial ambassador for American galleries and museums and, with wide influence, was able to enrich art collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Breakfast in Bed was first bought by Mrs Chauncey Blair, then passed to other wealthy American private collectors, and finally the Scott Foundation acquired the picture from the Kennedy Galleries in New York in October 1976.
Artistic Connections
The French painter Berthe Morisot (pictured) was on good terms with Mary Cassatt. The two of them are regarded as the most important women painters of the late 19th century.
- Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
- Cassatt admired the pictures of Edgar Degas (above)
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
- Allegheny City, Cassatt’s birthplace