Mother’s Day Artist Spotlight: Mary Cassatt

Art can show us fantastical things, epic stories, and wonderful places. Art can also give us an appreciation for our everyday lives. A lot of artists and art movements have focused on making common things and regular moments into art. One artist was Mary Cassat. Cassat (1844-1926) was an American painter who often painted mothers and children, and the love between them.

As you look through her paintings you can ask yourself:

How do I feel looking at this painting?

Does this remind me of a specific memory?

Where in the painting do my eyes keep going back to?

Take your time scrolling, and feel free to stop and take a breath with each painting to really look at it.

Breakfast in Bed, 1897
Auguste Reading to Her Daughter, 1910
Young Mother Sewing, 1900
Reine Lefebre and Margot Before a Window, 1902
Mother and Child, 1900

Cassatt was painting many decades ago, but a lot of those pictures probably felt familiar. Consider making a drawing or painting of an ordinary moment with your parents. It can give you, and them, a new appreciation for those little moments. Even if you don’t think you’re as good as Mary Cassatt, your parents will still love it!

Activity