Art History Sunday: Women Impressionists: Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt

Women Impressionists: Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt

Join art historian Stella Grace Lyons for a morning re-examining two artists who stood at the heart of Impressionism, yet have so often been written to its margins.

Berthe Morisot: The Forgotten Impressionist

Berthe Morisot created some of the most progressive and visually pleasing works in late 19th Century France.

She participated in all but one of the 8 Impressionist exhibitions (only Pissarro showed work in all 8).

Yet on her death certificate she was listed as having ‘no profession’.

What does this tell us about female artists working in this period?

Why has so little attention been paid to this artist until recently?

This talk will explore Morisot’s revolutionary work, including her most famous painting ‘The Cradle’.

Mary Cassatt: An American in Paris

How did a woman from Pennsylvania become one of the leading figures in the most radical art movement in France?
Mary Cassatt defied expectations - of nationality, of gender and of artistic tradition. She was the only American to exhibit with the French Impressionists and one of the few women to challenge the male-dominated gaze of 19th-century art.
This talk explores Cassatt’s bold, unconventional depictions of women and children—not as passive muses, but as thinking, feeling subjects. It considers her complex friendship with Degas, her experiments with Japanese printmaking and the social constraints she pushed against as both an artist and a woman.
Cassatt’s work was tender, modern and quietly revolutionary. So why is she still so often left out of the Impressionist story?