{"id":679104,"date":"2026-09-08T20:05:34","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T20:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/679104\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T20:05:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T20:05:34","slug":"art-institute-unveils-ode-to-relentless-experimenter-mary-cassatt-including-tale-of-long-lost-chicago-mural-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/679104\/","title":{"rendered":"Art Institute unveils ode to \u2018relentless experimenter\u2019 Mary Cassatt, including tale of long-lost Chicago mural"},"content":{"rendered":"

In its newly unveiled ode to painter Mary Cassatt<\/a>, The Art Institute of Chicago pays tribute to a woman who lived on her own terms.<\/p>\n

The new exhibit \u201cMary Cassatt: After Impressionism\u201d<\/a>\u2014 the museum\u2019s marquee show of the fall season and its first deep-dive into Cassatt in more than 25 years \u2014 features about 70 of Cassatt\u2019s paintings, pastels and prints. The show includes \u201cThe Child\u2019s Bath,\u201d a standout part of the museum\u2019s permanent collection since it was acquired in 1910.<\/p>\n

Cassatt was born in 1844 in Pennsylvania but lived most of her life in France. She is perhaps best known for her association with the French Impressionists, including Edgar Degas, who invited her to exhibit with the avant-garde clique of art radicals.<\/p>\n

But this new exhibit looks beyond that period of Cassatt\u2019s career to all that came next and reinterprets the groundbreaking American female artist, 100 years after her death.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"CASSATTPREVIEW_260908-025.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Visitors view the new Mary Cassatt exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. <\/p>\n

Candace Dane Chambers\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is real momentum in the scholarly world and the museum world to think anew about an artist that we think we know, and it\u2019s an opportunity to celebrate her work again,\u201d said curator Annelise K. Madsen. \u201cBut also dig in and understand and expand that story about what kind of work Cassatt created through a lifetime of art-making.\u201d<\/p>\n

The show also highlights the artist\u2019s ties to Chicago, including a now-lost mural<\/a> commissioned for the 1893 World\u2019s Columbian Exposition. And it delves into the inspiration she drew from Japanese printmakers and her deep exploration of her signature subject matter: women and children in everyday moments.<\/p>\n

On Monday \u2014 after what museum staff called a well-attended opening weekend, including two days of a members-only preview \u2014 the galleries buzzed with the energy of dozens of attendees who filled the space just as doors opened.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"CASSATTPREVIEW_260908-026.jpg\"<\/p>\n

The show also highlights the artist\u2019s ties to Chicago, including a now-lost mural commissioned for the 1893 World\u2019s Columbian Exposition.<\/p>\n

Candace Dane Chambers\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

The show begins with Cassatt\u2019s early works, some of which demonstrate a Renaissance influence. But there are also signs of what Cassatt became best known for: depicting fellow women as they were in their everyday lives, whether reading the newspaper, seeing an opera or tending to children.<\/p>\n

The exhibition then leads attendees down a hallway to encounter \u201cThe Child\u2019s Bath,\u201d which shows a mother in a striped dress with her hair pulled back, washing her youngster\u2019s feet. On Monday, one attendee held her own fussy toddler and pointed to the picture on the wall.<\/p>\n

The instantly recognizable 1893 work is, as Madsen says, \u201cthe bridge\u201d to the rest of the exhibit. In one direction, the show dives into Cassatt\u2019s exploration of printmaking, inspired by a show she saw in Paris, featuring Japanese woodblock prints from the 17th to 19th centuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was really energized by what she saw,\u201d said Madsen. \u201cAnd was thinking about how she could translate those aesthetics into something that worked for her.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Breakfast_in_Bed_B-Press<\/p>\n

\u201cMary Cassatt: After Impressionism\u201d features about 70 of Cassatt\u2019s paintings, pastels and prints.<\/p>\n

Mary Cassatt. Breakfast in Bed, 1897. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of the Virginia Steele Scott Foundation.<\/p>\n

The other side of the gallery showcases Cassatt\u2019s ongoing depiction of mothers and children. Despite Cassatt not having children of her own, Madsen said she brought a \u201cseriousness\u201d and \u201ca sense of purpose\u201d to her subjects.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a real sense of presence there that is a note that she hits on again and again,\u201d Madsen said, adding that Cassatt is also in an ongoing exploration of her technical expertise, through color, material and pattern.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s one of the things that, for me, is so fascinating about Cassatt that it\u2019s always about this subject, but it\u2019s always also about what she can do formally with the materials in hand,\u201d Madsen said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"CASSATTPREVIEW_260908-003.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Visitors view the new Mary Cassatt exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. <\/p>\n

Candace Dane Chambers\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

The third component of this part of the show is dedicated to the now-lost mural Cassatt created for the World\u2019s Fair in Chicago\u2019s Jackson Park.<\/p>\n

In the early 1890s, she was commissioned to create \u201cModern Woman,\u201d which spanned 60 feet in length and stood 14 feet high for the fair\u2019s Woman\u2019s Building. It was a laborious undertaking that Cassatt had nine months to complete. In a letter to a friend, Cassatt reflected on the scale of the project, saying, \u201cI certainly did not spend the summer in singing and dancing, but in the hardest of work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result was a triptych that showed more than 20 women and girls in nature: tending to an orchard, chasing a personification of fame, and dancing and playing music.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"New_MC06_F09r2_18-3_cropped.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Mary Cassatt\u2019s \u201cModern Woman\u201d mural in progress, c. January 1893. The mural, unveiled at the 1893 World\u2019s Fair, has been lost to history. <\/p>\n

From Maud Howe Elliott, ed., \u201cArt and Handicraft in the Woman\u2019s Building of the World\u2019s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893″ (Goupil, 1893), 25. <\/b>Courtesy of the Art Institute<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"MC03_F11r2_18-2_cropped.tif\"<\/p>\n

Mary Cassatt\u2019s mural \u201cModern Woman\u201d hangs inside the Woman\u2019s Building in the 1893 World\u2019s Columbian Exposition.<\/p>\n

Hall of Honor, Woman\u2019s Building, looking south toward Mary Cassatt\u2019s mural, \u201cModern Woman,\u201d at the World\u2019s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893. From Hubert Howe Bancroft, \u201cThe Book of the Fair\u201d (Bancroft, 1893), 3:269. Courtesy of the Art Institute.<\/p>\n

The massive piece helped raise Cassatt\u2019s profile in the United States and made her one of the early women artists to complete a public mural in the U.S. And, due to Cassatt\u2019s assertiveness, she also earned the same pay as the male muralists in the fair, according to Madsen.<\/p>\n

The Woman\u2019s Building was demolished after the fair. And Cassatt\u2019s mural was either lost or destroyed \u2014 it was last accounted for in 1912. Still, Madsen said, it\u2019s an important part of the story. \u201cOne of the objectives of the exhibition is to piece together that story and try to bring it back to life for visitors,\u201d Madsen said.<\/p>\n

The exhibit does that, in part, through a series of easel-sized artworks, which feature many of the same women and similar scenes that were depicted in the mural.<\/p>\n

Through her three-year exploration of Cassatt, Madsen said she gained a better understanding of the artist as a \u201crelentless experimenter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is pathbreaking at every moment, really,\u201d said Madsen. \u201cI think the determination, the grit to go out and do something that is not what\u2019s expected of you, but is what you want for yourself, is a story that many of us can cheer for and take something from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courtney Kueppers is an arts and culture reporter at WBEZ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In its newly unveiled ode to painter Mary Cassatt, The Art Institute of Chicago pays tribute to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[267],"tags":[365,362,363,364,366,18,117,19,17],"class_list":["post-679104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117237222036694145","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}