Fiercelyambitious and independent, Mary Cassatt defied expectations to become one ofthe most radical artists of the Impressionist movement, though she was-andremains-the least understood. Cassatt commanded and manipulated strains ofold master and contemporary painting to express her female subjectivitythrough a brilliantly modern oeuvre on par with those of the most reveredImpressionists. However, mishandled by the Parisian art establishment duringher lifetime, and later by art historians and curators, she became knownalmost exclusively as a sentimentalizing painter of mothers andchildren.How did this happen to the most aspiring,revolutionary female artist of the late nineteenth and early twentiethcenturies? In CassattReconsidered, author Mary G. Morton probes thiscentral question and more, demonstrating how Cassatt disturbed conventionalideals of femininity, childhood, and maternity, an uncompromising feat forwhich she paid dearly during her lifetime and in the annals of arthistoriography.Vibrantly illustrated with more than 100images, CassattReconsidered rewards readers with a fullerunderstanding of an artist who stands apart for daring to express, on her ownterms, the unique, intimate experiences of modern women.
