Publication Year
Spring 2025
Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
The historical viewing of women artists, in conjunction with Mary Cassatt’s biography and later depictions of women and children, suggests that Cassatt's gender is identified within the art historical canon as an essential component to the interpretation of her work. The language attached to Cassatt's work is most often taken from discourses surrounding female-produced artwork of the nineteenth century, attaching passive and stereotypically feminine attributes like 'delicate,' 'light,' and 'tender' to the style, composition, and subjects of her works. These characteristics were among the accepted nineteenth-century descriptions of artworks, with inherent femininity translating to inherent domesticity.
Rather than further reducing Mary Cassatt to an artist representing women of her own social class, I argue that her gender and class intersect in more complex ways that shape her approach to both subject matter and representation. This complexity is evident in her early Spanish portraits After the Bullfight (1873) [Figure 1], The Flirtation: Aa Balcony in Seville (1872) [Figure 2], and Offering the Panal to the Bullfighter (1872) [Figure 3]. In these works, her subjects engage in relational dynamics that extend beyond the traditional maternal motif most often associated with her work, revealing broader social themes of gender expectations, societal structures and authority within male-to-female relationships.
With consideration towards intervening on the wider narrative of Impressionist art history, this thesis aims to view Mary Cassatt's work through an expanded lens that reaches beyond the existing analysis most commonly associated with her portraiture. By examining her earlier, far less popularized portraits featuring male figures, I seek to show how Cassatt offers a different depiction of relationship in the form of masculine and feminine interaction, straying away from her often attributed "sentimental" aspects towards a bolder and sensuous presentation of her art. Having received formal art education in America before traveling across Europe and ultimately settling in Paris, Cassatt’s status as part of both the American and European bourgeoisie granted her the power to observe members of the lower class and elaborate her observations in a way that diverged from typical upper-class behaviors of nineteenth-century Europe.
To further understand Cassatt's early Spanish works and their place within the Impressionist canon, I will employ theory from feminist art historical and theoretical frameworks, including those articulated by Griselda Pollock, Linda Nochlin, and Tamar Garb, with analysis that is rooted in sustained relooking. The body of this research will examine the three aforementioned portraits done by Cassatt during her stay in Seville, Spain from 1872-1873, that reflect a nuanced negotiation of class and gender, and which manifests apart from her canonization in depictions of the mother and child.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a CC BY License.
Digital USD Citation
Batter, Delaney, "Painting the Other: Mary Cassatt's Spanish Portraits and the Feminine Gaze" (2025). Undergraduate Theses in Art History. 3.
https://digital.sandiego.edu/aaah-utah/3
Included in
Fine Arts Commons, Modern Art and Architecture Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Other French and Francophone Language and Literature Commons, Other History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons, Theory and Criticism Commons, Women's Studies Commons
