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"You’ll never look at Cassatt the same way again."—A Hyperallergic Favorite Art Book of 2025
"An authoritative, beautifully illustrated study."—Kirkus Reviews
Finalist for the Marfield Book Prize
The first comprehensive study of Cassatt’s life, work, and legacy through the prism of a transatlantic framework.
This book re-envisions Mary Cassatt in the context of her transatlantic network, friendships, exhibitions, politics, and legacy. Rather than defining her as either an American artist or a French impressionist, author Ruth E. Iskin argues that we can best understand Cassatt through the complexity of her multiple identifications as an American patriot, a committed French impressionist, and a suffragist.
Contextualizing Cassatt’s feminist outlook within the intense pro- and anti-suffrage debates in the United States, Iskin shows how these impacted her artistic representations of motherhood, fatherhood, and older women. Mary Cassatt between Paris and New York also argues for the historical importance of her work as an advisor to American collectors, and demonstrates the role of museums in shaping her legacy, highlighting the combined impact of gender, national, and transnational dynamics.
"A remarkable achievement, offering a comprehensive and nuanced portrait of one of the most significant artists of the 19th and 20th centuries. Ruth E. Iskin’s meticulous research and interdisciplinary approach shed new light on Cassatt’s life, work, and influence, reframing her as a transatlantic figure whose legacy transcends borders and genres."
"Beautifully illustrated. . . . Iskin offers an illuminating account of Cassatt’s life, work and legacy."
"Iskin injects fresh perspective and important nuance into Cassatt’s legacy, while affirming her singular place in art history: as a prominent Impressionist, a trailblazing woman artist, and an American Parisian whose influence spanned an ocean."
"Iskin has written a marvelous book, blessedly free of academic jargon, shedding fresh light on Cassatt’s work, and putting her in her rightful place in the Impressionist pantheon."
"Iskin weaves a bold, but engaging narrative, anchored in Cassatt’s lived experience. . . . Iskin’s book is not only a welcome addition to studies of nineteenth-century art history but also is a call to arms to museum curators and directors, as well as historians, to embrace the complexity and humanity of artists’ lives to offer a more inclusive vision of modern art."
“I devoured Ruth E. Iskin's Mary Cassatt between Paris and New York. A voluminously illustrated new book about the artist by an important scholar . . . After Iskin, you’ll never look at Cassatt the same way again — less Madonna and Child and more Revolution Girl Style Now.”
"Iskin arrives at a revised understanding of Cassatt’s life, career, and posthumous legacy. Throughout the book, Iskin provides a nuanced analysis of Cassatt’s personal and professional lives in the context of her transatlantic networks, collecting activities, and politics."
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Cassatt’s Transatlantic Network
2. Cassatt and Louisine Havemeyer: Collaboration, Suffrage, Alliance, and Affective Bond
3. Cassatt and Degas: Camaraderie, Conflict, and Legacy
4. Cassatt’s Transatlantic Feminism
5. Cassatt’s Art and the Suffrage Debates of Her Time
6. The 1915 Cassatt and Degas Exhibition in New York
7. Cassatt’s Legacy: Art Museums and National Identity
Abbreviations
Notes
Selected Bibliography
List of Illustrations
Index