Portrait of a Young Woman

Mary Cassatt made this pastel drawing, Portrait of a Young Woman, in France, sometime in the late nineteenth century. Cassatt, an American, was part of the Impressionist circle in Paris, but her work often focused on the private lives of women, rather than the cityscapes and landscapes typically associated with Impressionism. Here, the young woman is shown in a moment of contemplation. Cassatt’s art often questioned the expected roles for women in her time. Instead of portraying her subject in a passive or decorative way, she shows us a woman who appears thoughtful and engaged in her own interior world. To understand the politics of this imagery, we might want to examine popular magazines and advertisements from the time. Comparing these images with Cassatt’s portraits might reveal just how radical her art was, in its subtle defiance of social norms. What resources might we consult? Art journals, letters between artists, and exhibition reviews all help us to better understand art as something that is contingent on social and institutional context.