Mary Cassatt at Work | on view at the @legionofhonor until January 26 LegionofHonor MaryCassatt Legion100 I first saw one of Mary Cassatt’s paintings in May 2017 at the @ngadc in D.C. and I remember ‘Little Girl in a Blue Armchair’ immediately catching my attention. The girl herself was the daughter of a friend of Degas’s and the painting is often cited as an example of Degas’s influence on Cassatt. “Too often dismissed as a sentimental painter of mothers and children, Mary Cassatt (1844–1926) was in fact a modernist pioneer. Her paintings, pastels, and prints are characterized by restless experimentation and change. Cassatt was the only American to join the French Impressionists, first exhibiting with the group at Degas’s invitation in 1879, and quickly emerged as a key member of the movement. Alongside scenes of women at the opera, visiting friends, and taking tea, Cassatt produced many images of “women’s work” — knitting and needlepoint, bathing children, and nursing infants. These images suggest parallels between the work of art making and the work of caregiving. The exhibition calls attention to the artist’s own processes of making — how she used her brush, etching needle, pastel stick, and even fingertips to create radical art under the cover of “feminine” subject matter.” FAMSF fineartsmuseum frenchimpressionism impressionism edgardegas degas sfbayarea sfblogger sanfrancisco sanfranciscoblogger onlyinsf sfart #샌프란시스코 artblogger LTKStyleTip LTKItBag LTKWorkwear