In the Loge by Mary Cassatt Poster

In the Loge by Mary Cassatt, oil on canvas 1878, is a painting of a profile view of a young woman in black dress and black hat seated in a balcony theatre box in an opera house. The lady holds small binoculars to her eyes, gazing intently at the action on stage, while she holds a small fan in her other hand. In the background the white balcony rails curve around, other members of the audience watching the show. Cassatt paints the scene with striking contrasts of light and dark in a rich range of tones from deep velvety black through warm browns to sharp white highlights, with bravado brush strokes of painterly realism that recall the bravado brushwork and chiaroscuro of Manet, Goya, and Velazquez. Cassatt creates a slice of life image of middle class life and culture in the late 19th century. Mary Stevenson Cassatt (1844 - 1926) was an American painter and printmaker who became an important member of the French Impressionist movement of art. Born in Pennsylvania, Cassatt studied abroad in Europe as a young woman, where she began her first studies in art. Dedicating herself to art, she enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, until she moved to Paris in 1866 to study with Jean-Leon Gerome of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and became a copyist in the Louvre. By 1874 Cassatt had a studio in Paris but struggled to exhibit in the official French Salon, until Edgar Degas invited her to join the Impressionist exhibitions. Degas tremendously influenced Cassatt, about whom he wittily remarked "No woman has the right to draw like that", and the two artists had a close working relationship for years as Mary absorbed Degas' drawing, composition, and mastery of the mediums of pastel and etching. Cassatt posed for a number of paintings by the elder artist, and created her own unsentimental, rigorously drawn figure paintings of scenes from modern life, notably many paintings on the theme of mother and child. Her series of highly original coloured prints in etching and aquatint are an unsurpassed landmark in the history of art, influenced by the elegance of classical Japanese printmakers. An early feminist and supporter of women's suffrage, Cassatt painted prolifically until well into old age, exhibiting at the notorious American Armoury Show of 1913.