Mary Cassatt was the only female artist Degas ever credited with drawing abilities and the only American to exhibit with the Impressionist circle, which included Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Sisley, Van Gogh, and Degas, among others. Cassatt, famous for her maternal portraits, began her studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where twenty percent of the students were female and valued art as a social skill. Few were determined to make a career of art, as was Cassatt.

Determined To Do It Herself

Cassatt left the academy and headed abroad to eventually settle in France, where she would meet Degas. Abroad, though with challenges, Cassatt could take on models instead of drawing from casts. She studied personally with Jean-Léon Gérôme (a master from the École des Beaux-Arts) and copied the masters for self-study in the Louvre. While the artist criticized the Salon and its conventional taste, many of her works shown there, including Two Women Throwing Flowers During Carnival of 1872, which was purchased. The artist was rejected by the Salon’s jury, as she did not have a friend or protector on the board, but eventually met with success, showing works at the Salon over the course of seven years.

Cassatt, Critics and Impressionists

Despite (or perhaps in spite of) her success, critics accused her of being too outspoken. Sartain stated that Cassatt was blunt in her comments and wrote: “She is entirely too slashing, snubs all modern art, disdains the Salon pictures of Cabanel, Bonnat, all the names we are used to revere.” In 1877, two of her works were rejected from the Salon. Around the same time, Degas had invited Cassatt to show with the Impressionists at the World’s Fair in 1878. The Impressionists had no manifesto but preferred to paint in the open air with vibrant strokes and premixed paints.

Flattered by Degas’ invitation, Cassatt accepted and joined the group, which had shown independently for several years. Cassatt also joined Berthe Morisot, who showed with the Impressionists, as the only other woman in the group. Critic Henry Bacon, a friend of the Cassatt family, accused the Impressionists of having a “disease of the eye.” However, his wife Lucy Bacon often sought Cassatt’s advice as a skilled painter.

Degas and Cassatt?

Having seen Degas’ work in 1875 in an art dealer’s window shop, Cassatt stated, “I used to go and flatten my nose against that window and absorb all I could of his art.” She continued, “It changed my life. I saw art then as I wanted to see it.” Like true peers, Degas and Cassatt supported each other professionally. Degas was impressed by Cassatt’s draftsman abilities, the only female artist he had supposedly so complimented. Cassatt picked up on Degas passion for pastels and also purchased one of his works and brought it home, making the piece the first Impressionist work to grace American soil. It is said that Degas and Cassatt shared an unique and intimate relationship, but in what context?

Early on, Cassatt had decided against marriage, as it would halt her art career in its steps. She also frowned upon flirting with jurors to accept her work into the Salon. She did not take a protector. She did not marry. Their work certainly influenced one another, and eventually they took to painting portraits of  each other. Degas often depicted Cassatt with the stature of a man, as she was a very unconventional and independent woman and artist. Many would cast her in the light of other female artists at the time, extending Degas interest in Cassatt as something more. It may be suggested that their relationship became romantic, but they were true peers. 

Cassatt as a Master

While other women were serving as low-paying copyists of masters in the Louvre, Mary Cassatt stood alongside the masters she admired, not “spoken for” or looked after as a female painter in a man’s art world but in her own right. Cassatt graced the walls of the Salon, showed at the World Fair, and exhibited with the likes of Degas and Morisot as one of two women in the Impressionist group. In her own way, Cassatt’s mother and child artworks cast not only a realistic reflection of women in their time period, but reveal them in an unconventional and empowering Impressionist light.

This week’s post is all about patterns. Guess what painting was made by who. This will be your last chance to see what was in the mystery box. Which I will uncover in a couple weeks.

This will be the last game board for a while so Good Luck!

Last chance to see if you can claim this hidden visual prize. Come back in 2 weeks to see who wins it.

The Barnes Foundation houses one of the finest collections of nineteenth and twentieth-century French painting in the world. An extraordinary number of masterpieces by Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse provide a depth of work by these artists unavailable elsewhere.

Established as an educational institution the Barnes carries out its mission teaching classes in its galleries and Arboretum.

People ask, “What’s wrong with moving the Barnes art collection to Philadelphia? It will stay intact and remain in the region.” This line of thinking ignores the fact that the Barnes is much more than an art collection.

Albert Barnes sought to understand art and was a visionary collector with innovative tastes. The art gallery building was designed specifically for his art collection by renowned architect, Paul Philippe Cret. With John Dewey, America’s foremost educational philosopher, Barnes developed an educational program for the study of art with based on the unity of aesthetic expression, throughout time and across cultures. The art gallery is installed according to those educational principles and is the reason for the wall ensembles with their unusual, even staggering, display of art and artifacts.

The gallery is situated in the midst of an extensive arboretum and sited in relation to trees that were planted long before Barnes purchased the property. The Arboretum and its educational program were developed by Laura Barnes, based on the same principles as the art program. Trees and plants were chosen to relate to specific works of art inside the gallery and to the materials and design of the gallery building. The Cousa dogwood trees in front of the gallery were selected because their exfoliating bark mirrors the colors of the limestone façade and the ceramic roof tiles.

The gallery building is a work of art unto itself, with Jacques Lipchitz bas reliefs punctuating the limestone façade. The entryway is of Enfield ceramic tiles, commissioned in an African mask motif, and this theme continues through the exterior ironwork and on the friezes inside the gallery. This recurrent African theme reflects Albert Barnes’ profound respect for African American culture and prefigures his relationship with Lincoln University.

Rising above the main gallery is the monumental mural, La Danse, by Henri Matisse, which was commissioned, designed, and painted for this specific location– over the three arched windows that look out to the Arboretum beyond. (Two museums in France devote gallery and exhibition space to the history of this mural, which had to be painted twice, and became a seminal work in Matisse’s career.) The shape of Matisse’s arched mural is echoed in the stone well in the front of the gallery and again in the shape of the wisteria arbor behind the gallery.

The Barnes Foundation in its totality is an artistic masterpiece, thoughtfully planned and executed by Albert and Laura Barnes. To remove the art collection to Philadelphia is to destroy the incomparable experience they wanted to pass on in perpetuity to future generations. In fact, this will eviscerate the Barnes Foundation. Moving the art collection to “save” the Barnes is the cultural equivalent of the “successful” surgery that leaves the patient dead. This will be the tragic case of tourism destroying the very thing it is seeking to promote.

The Barnes is a magnificent gift, a visionary achievement, and an important part of our cultural patrimony. Let us support, celebrate, and honor an intact Barnes Foundation in Merion.

See the controversial story of the Barnes Foundation Move in the new documentary: The Art of the Steal…

Fall has always been a simple holiday to decorate for – gather vibrant red and yelow-gold leaves from the backyard, tie the individual leaves to some hemp thread and string over doorways or across a mantel. Winter is a bit complicated with such holidays as Christmas, Hanukkah, and Yule to decorate for, and shoppers base decorations around these religious holidays.

There’s something even more magical about decorations taken from nature and handmade than the garlands gotten from craft stores or using cotton balls for snow in the winter above the fireplace. Some aspects about the holidays never change – garlands, wreathes, or statues of Santa. However, there are some things you can do to shake up your holiday decorations.

1. Forget the fake. Fake decorations tend to pile up and one home begins to look like another.
2. Use Nature.  Gather pine cones and leaves from a walk. You can create your own wreathes or tree decorations. After you carve your pumpkin, make pumpkin pie!
3. Go bright and bold. This season looks toward making colors pop. Emphasize the colors of fall and winter with simple decorations – such as a new painting, pillow, or a few candles. Light blues are especially popular for winter this year.
4. Consider alternative shopping. Forgoe the craft, Halloween, and holiday themed stores. Consider shopping online where artists, jewelry makers, clothing designers, and more gather to create handmade and unique gifts not only for you, but for your home! Add a painting to your seasonal decor from overstockArt.com!
5. Forget Themes. Leave it for your daughter’s wedding. This season looks away from theme and celebrates the “if you like it, find a place for it” as design shifts toward the unexpected. Have you ever felt like you walked into your aunt’s house to only feel like you were holiday shopping again? Too much can overwhelm.
6. Choose a focal point. If you have a love for themes, choose a central location for it. Most decorations focus on table top decorations–pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving, lanterns, cobwebs, and candy on Halloween, and snow and chill during winter. Consider making the table top your focal point, as family gathers and shares the holiday season together.
7. Repurpose. Artists have been doing it for years. From Duchamp to Picasso’s assemblage collages, don’t be afraid to take apart some old decorations or recycle unused figurines. You’ll either get great decorations or handy gifts for unexpected situations. Remember popcorn wreathes for the tree? 
8. Go Green. For a season that is known for browns and whites in nature, the decorations favor reds and a lot of green. Take it to an environmental level and use the season to make small changes in your home to spruce up the look and cut costs while saving the environment.
9. Shiny and Metallic? For some reason, consumers gravitating towards metallic wall art this year. Sconces with a metallic finish will set the mood for your home. Choose a new frame to go with those bright and bold colors, or invest in metal sculptures.
10. Personalize your decorations. A new look may fall flat on the senses unless you have a love for what you are creating. Take photos of the family and create decorations. Choose decorations and gifts which inspire childhood memories.

These ten suggestions will get you started on innovative ideas to shake up your holiday season. This fall and winter calls for your unique touch!

This weeks game board is all about the circles, see if you can find these well rounded paintings and their artists.

How well do you know your Art? Above are images of paintings from overstockArt.com currently available in our online gallery.  If you think you can identify the artist and title of each work, please submit your answers by leaving a comment on this post. We will provide the correct answers  in two weeks (on Friday, Oct. 22th), along with our next ReproduceTHIS: Know your Art challenge and mystery box!

Special thanks goes to Drew for playing. This weeks mystery box will need to stay a mystery, but I do have a nice runner up prize for you…

STARFISH KEY CHAIN!!!!  :-D

Will the next players get to see what’s in our mystery box? Leave your comments and then come back in 2 weeks for the next game and prize.

Completed between 1503-06, the Mona Lisa, recently underwent a much needed restoration. After five hundred years of preventative wear and tear, the Louvre moved in collaboration with the Labor­atoire du Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France and the European Synch­rotron Radia­tion Facility to chemically analyze the world-famous painting. For decades the Louvre was nervous regarding possible damage to the careful layering of the painting. Researchers discovered that da Vinci used up to 30 layers on the famous work. It is theorized that he used walnut or linseed oil in application of opaque lighter colors over darker layers.

Those who have seen photos or the Mona Lisa in person may argue that the restoration steals from the original. What hundreds of generations past have known of the famous work by da Vinci is the monochromatic yellowing that comes with age and is associated with antiquity. Others would argue that the Mona Lisa, newly restored, as fresh from the easel as the day da Vinci applied the last layer is how the work should be experienced. Would da Vinci be honored and proud that his work has been thusly preserved? Most argue it to be the case.

Regardless of our feelings about “to restore or not to restore,” the Mona Lisa is a classic treasure which future generations will continue to enjoy, exploring the mysteries surrounding her creation. But just what is her secret?

Da Vinci’s Self-Portrait or “Light-Hearted Woman”

It is known that Leonardo da Vinci loved the painting so much that he carried it with him during his travels. What is the mystery behind the famous smile? The Mona Lisa is also know as La Gioconda from the Italian gioconda, or “light-hearted woman.” Is she another countryside Lady, or perhaps da Vinci himself? ABC news publicly reopened the question regarding the identity of the person portrayed in the portrait. A leading group of scientists and art historians at Italy’s National Committee for Cultural Heritage is said to be unarchiving the artist’s skull from his burial site in France. They plan to utilize CSI technology to analyze and map the skull, comparing it to the dimensions of the face in the Mona Lisa. Those interested in the theory in the past have compared da Vinci’s features in his self-sketches to the Mona Lisa. What do you think?

Some have theorized that the Mona Lisa is a member of the Medici family – famous art patrons who are notably portrayed in many master’s works during the Renaissance. Mona is said to be a polite form of address for my Lady. Perhaps the relative is Isabella of Naples, Costanza d’Avalos – who was also called the “merry one” or La Gioconda, or Isabella d’Este. In Giorgio Vasari’s biography of Leonardo published in 1550, he states “Leonardo undertook to paint, for Francesco del Giocondo, the portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife…” Similar varying notations of identity are referenced by other reputable sources, including Agostino Vespucci revealing Lisa del Giocondo as the sitter. The solution may not be that it is da Vinci himself, but rather a blend of the sitter and da Vinci’s likeness.

Da Vinci was a philosopher, mathematician, scientist and artist whose vast knowledge has added to our achievements in science and medicine, noting particularly the anatomical drawings of the artist. It would not be an unlikely hypothesis that the artist incorporated aspects of himself in this famous masterpiece. The wry smile of Mona Lisa, whether da Vinci in drag or Medici patron, will continue to inspire new generations in a new light.