Mary Cassatt the Franco-American

Though seeing and describing herself as fundamentally American, Cassatt spent most of her life in France. After arriving in Paris as an art student at 21, she remained in the capital – or the Château de Beaufresne in the Oise, which she bought in 1894 – to the end of her days, only returning to America for fairly brief trips. The main reason for this undoubtedly lay in her desire to devote herself to modern painting. From Allegheny City to Paris Mary Cassatt was born in 1844 to a rich family in Allegheny City (annexed to Pittsburgh 63 years later). Through her father, she was a descendant of French Huguenots who emigrated to first Holland, then America. Her parents, Robert Simpson Cassatt and Katherine Kelso, were respectively the founder of an investment company and the daughter of the chairman of the Bank of Pittsburgh. The young Cassatt attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, but decided to continue her training in Paris, where she studied with…