Mary Cassatt: Impressionist Painter

by Lois Harris

Overview

“With large, crisply reproduced, color artwork on nearly every page, this picture-book biography . . . will appeal to a broad age-range.” —Booklist
 
Mary Cassatt knew from a young age that she wanted to make her living as an artist. She persuaded her parents to send her to the prestigious Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts at age fifteen, and by age twenty, she had moved abroad to begin her painting career. After several years of study and success, she found her rightful place among the Impressionists, becoming their first and only female American member.
Illustrated with Cassatt’s own work and that of other influential Impressionists, as well as photographs of the artist, this book offers children a glimpse at life during the late 1800s and showcases the colorful vivaciousness of Cassatt's work. Her beloved portraits of mothers and children are highlighted here, but the book also includes lesser-known work that shows Cassatt’s range of talent. Children will enjoy seeing the warm and loving images of others their age relaxing with pets, enjoying the outdoors, and being held by caring adults.

Inspiring for all children, but especially appropriate for those with artistic interests, this book shows how one girl's lifelong dream to become an artist came true due to an independent spirit, determination, and commitment to her craft.
 
“Attractive, clear, and useful to young students.” —Library Media Connection
 
“Through both words and art, this biography beautifully pictures the life of a talented and courageous woman.” —www.childrenslit.com
 
“Explores history and social context in an engaging manner that will connect readers—and their parents—to earlier times.” —The Bloomsbury Review

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455608553
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	12/21/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	542,583
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	1 - 12 Years

About the Author

Lois V. Harris's fiction, nonfiction, and photography have appeared in children's magazines and the L.A. Times. The author of Mary Cassatt: Impressionist Painter and Charlie Russell: Tale-Telling Cowboy Artist, Harris is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, the Authors Guild, the University of Washington Alumni Association, and the Seattle Art Museum. She lives with her family and two cats in Anacortes, Washington, and enjoys visiting museums and learning about art.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 2-4
Cassatt, "one of the world's greatest Impressionist painters," was born in Pennsylvania in 1844, began drawing as a child, and, by the time she was 21, was studying and copying the works of the great masters in the museums of western Europe. An admirer and friend of Edgar Degas, she became the only American Impressionist, but her visionary style wasn't appreciated until after her death. Cassatt's story is told primarily through reproductions of artworks, both her own paintings and those of her contemporaries. The illustrations provide an overview of her work from 1873 to 1901 and make it easy to trace her evolving style. The pieces are well chosen to coordinate with the text, and, while the intensity of the colors is somewhat muted, the overall quality is quite good. Occasional black-and-white photos of pertinent people and places round out this chronological biography. A credits page lists titles, dates, and locations of the reproductions. Unfortunately, the narrative is rather dry, using matter-of-fact short, declarative sentences that explain the important information but give little life to the subject. Although this title would be a serviceable introduction for elementary readers, libraries with Jane O'Connor's more exuberant Mary Cassatt (Grosset & Dunlap, 2003) can easily pass it by.
—Nancy Menaldi-ScanlanCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Mary Cassatt was a trailblazer both as a woman and as a painter. As the author of this biography declares, by "following her own plan, she became one of the world's greatest Impressionist painters." Unfortunately, a recitation of the facts of Cassatt's life-born in 1844, moved to Europe with her family for a spell, moved back, attended art school, tired of painting to please the judges, etc.-fails to convey the passion and intense creativity she must have possessed. Even the lovely paintings reproduced here fail to enliven what by definition is a hugely difficult project: using the vehicle of biography to teach art history to those without the context or vocabulary necessary to give it meaning. While doing a serviceable job of explaining the difference between the painters favored by the Salon and the Impressionists, the attempts to add kid-friendly interest to the story fall flat. (Nonfiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews