Cassatt - Summertime: Duck

Mary Stevenson Cassatt (1844-1926) was an American Impressionist painter and engraver born in Pennsylvania to an old American family descended from French emigrants who arrived in the United States in 1662: the Cossarts. She settled in Paris in 1865 to complete her artistic training and became friends with Edgar Degas in 1875. She subsequently participated in several Impressionist exhibitions. A portraitist rather than a landscaper, she often depicted the private and social lives of women and children, having remained single and childless until her death. "Summer", one of her major works, perfectly illustrates this favorite theme.