Born in what is now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Mary Cassatt spent much of her youth between Paris and Germany. Her youth and education, from an early age, was marked by an emphasis on travel. Cassatt’s studies in painting began in 1860 when she enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. After two years, being disgruntled by the academic environment, Cassatt abandoned her schooling there. It was not until 1865 that she convinced her father to allow her to move to Paris to study with the company of her mother. Since the École des Beaux- Arts was not yet accepting women into their curriculum, Mary applied to study privately instead. She began her studies under Jean- Léon Gérôme. She aided her studies by copying works at the louvre in her spare time.

In 1868, Mary Cassatt’s Mandolin Player was accepted at the Paris Salon. After touring Europe from 1871-1874 Cassatt settled in Paris once again. She lost interest in the Salons, claiming them as too conservative, and critiquing the

artists involved as producing in aims of profit seeking. In 1875 Cassatt came to encounter Degas’ work displayed in a gallery. Having eventually befriended the artist, they became close colleagues and collaborators and eventually, in 1877, she was invited to join his Impressionist movement. Being the only American painter in the movement, she participated in 4 of the 8 exhibitions. Degas became her mentor, and she was influenced to explore and further her technique. He also encouraged her to take up printmaking.

Around 1900, Mary Cassatt added a new type of composition to her repertory: the young girl seated alone or with a dog. Many of the girls, as in Sara Wearing a Bonnet and Coat, wear elaborate chapeaux. Inspired by seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish portraits as well as English portraits of the Romantic period, Cassatt updated the genre. While the old master images depicted aristocratic children, Cassatt often drew her models from the families of local servants. Nevertheless, she instilled her sitters with a strong sense of presence and dignity, in keeping with her belief that education and cooperation among women could shape destiny as much as inherited position.

Between 1901 and 1904, she gave up on printmaking and painting due to her failing eyesight. Her later years were marked by her time advising to art collectors.

This counterproof is recorded as no. 454 in A. Breeskin, Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oils, Pastels, Watercolors, and Drawings, Washington, D.C., 1970. The artist also produced a well-known lithograph based on this work and there is a similar piece in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

This work will be included in the Cassatt Committee's revision of Adelyn Dohme Breeskin's catalogue raisonné of the works of Mary Cassatt in the section dealing with the artist's pastel counterproofs.

Today her work is displayed in many esteemed museums and collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, and the National Gallery.