Mary Cassatt

This informative biography of a pioneering American artist is also an interesting look at the insular world of art at that time, particularly in France, where the Paris Salon for years had been the arbiter of what was and wasn't art, and, by extension, who among the artists succeeded and who failed. A few artists began an art movement of their own, showing their work in homes and galleries to an increasingly interested public. Streissguth explains how these Independents, as they called themselves, refused to paint gods, goddesses, and other subjects of the classical traditions; instead they created works that did not depend on photographic realism to make their point, but instead gave an impression of a scene or a person. Cassatt, an American, felt a kinship with these painters, and was invited to exhibit her work with them. That she was an exceptional artist and woman emerges in the early pages; the author provides a thorough, engrossing context for the details of her life, while the reproductions of many of her works reinforce her brilliance. (bibliography, index) (Biography. 10-13)