Mary Cassat

Representations of Space

Examining 3 Works by Mary Cassatt

Prepared by:

Kerstan Lindsay

Women impressionists were challenged with the difficult task of overcoming the societal ideal that only men could be respected artists, with women accepted merely as subjects for artistic inspiration. This paper will discuss how the representation of space in the work of Mary Cassatt exhibits her influence from society, as well as from fellow impressionists and Japanese techniques.

The concept of space is represented in terms of location and spatial order. In reference first to location, Mary Cassatt often depicted space that could be considered private domestic areas such as drawing rooms, bedrooms, and private gardens. This is because women had the difficulty of a restriction on accepted, appropriate subject matter. Middle class women did not have a great range of sites available to them. Unlike men, it was abnormal for women to roam freely about the city and frequent its cafes, bars, and brothels. With such locales off-limits to women artists, it was impossible for women to paint them first hand. Many women instead drew direct influences from other impressionistic artists that were males, Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec to name a couple.

Scenes from the intimate parts of the house give a unique sensuality to Cassatt's work. In her popular masterpiece, The Bath, a woman washes herself at a basin, the curve of her back capturing the viewer's eye, highlighting the intimacy of her female body. It is a very tender moment captured between a mother and child.

The mother's gestures are natural and routine, yet they communicate her tender concern for the child's well being. Rather than look at each other, they gaze in the same direction, looking together at their reflection in the basin of water. The picture's elevated vantage point pitches forward the planes, allowing the viewer to observe, but not participate in, the scene. This is an important example spatial order, the second dimension in which the issue of space can be addressed.

While other impressionist painters such as Manet and Degas experimented with Japanese inspired techniques (one of many defining features of early modernist painting in Paris), Mary Cassatt exhibit an entirely different effect of special techniques in her work (Pollock). She embraced the technique of her fellow impressionists while developing a highly accomplished individual style. Her oblique views, simplified forms, and flat compositions show the impact of Degas' work, as well as her study of Japanese prints.

An example of Cassatt's unique style is evident in Portrait of a Little Girl, as the space and objects that surround the figure seem to be in motion; the floor lifts up, and the chairs appear to have slid into various, almost accidental positions (much like the position of the young subject).

This piece portrays the daughter of friends of Degas inside with Cassatt's dog. Mary Cassatt submitted the painting to the American section of the 1878 Paris Exposition universelle and was rejected. One reason could be the portrayed posture of the female subject. In a plush drawing room, a little girl sprawls on an armchair, her clothes slightly askew, her look slightly bored. Author Judith A. Barter reasons, "The young model can be perceived as totally unconscious and innocent or as coquettish and sexually precocious." The diagonal drape of her limbs over the chair contrasts with the constraining cummerbund around her dress, suggesting the social conventions that will mold the girl later in life.

Another reason for being rejected may have been Mary Cassatt's use of Japanese techniques in her radical handling of the background. As in her domestic interiors of the time, she reduced spatial depth by choosing a sharp, high angle for the floor, crowding the chairs together, and abruptly cropping the windows.