Mary Cassatt Lilacs Luminaries

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was an American painter and printmaker. At the age of 15, over the objections of her family, she began her art training at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 1865, impatient with the academy’s restrictive and patronizing environment for female students, she decided to travel abroad to study painting in Paris and explore the museums of Europe.

Settling permanently in France in 1874, Cassatt exhibited at the Paris Salon, where she met Edgar Degas who invited her to join the Impressionists and was to become her friend and mentor. “I accepted with joy,” she said. “I took leave of conventional art. I began to live.”

Cassatt’s technique changed greatly under the influence of the Impressionists. Best known for her contemporary scenes of mothers and children, Lilacs in a Window is one of her rare still lifes. Our delightful luminaries feature a detail of the softly textured brush strokes that describe the delicate purple and white spring blossoms.

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926)
Lilacs in a Window, ca. 1880-83
Oil on canvas.
Metropolitan Museum of Art