Degas/Cassatt Exhibit Reveals the Value of Artistic Sharing — Even Copying

Girl Arranging Her Hair – Cassatt

Morning Toilet – Degas

If you ask most of today’s artists if they copy from each other, most will be insulted and exclaim with a resounding, “NO!”  Today’s art culture shames the copier; yet, that has not always been the case.  It is common knowledge that the Old Masters copied the works of artists before them.  It might be surprising, however, to know that even the Impressionists copied.  I love what Mary Cassatt had to say about copying:

“Why do these young girls come to me for advice?  They have not the slightest notion of giving to art the devotion it requires.  I say to the, ‘Do you ever go to the Louvre and copy some of the great masters?’ And they invariably answer, ‘Oh, no, we can’t, we are working in the studio, we have no time.’  ‘Degas does,’ I answer.”

Quote from the Degas/Cassatt Exhibition CatalogueJones, p. 89

The Spectator: Opera,Theater, And Ballet As Theme – Degas and Cassatt

The Loge – Cassatt c. 1878 – 1880 – Oil on Canvas – National Gallery of Art

At the Theater – Cassatt – 1878 – 1879 – Pastel and Gouache with Metallic Paint –                                      Collection of Ann and Gordon Getty

In the Loge – Cassatt – Boston Museum of Fine Arts

“At the 1879 and 1880 impressionist exhibitions, she exhibited half a dozen works on the topic of female spectators at the opera, while Degas exhibited over a dozen works relating to ballet, cafe entertainment, and performance.  Also dealing with spectatorship and this in close onversation with Cassatt’s works are his earlier painting The Ballet from ‘Robert le Diable’ … along with several works…including Dancer with a Bouquet.” Jones, Kimberly.  Degas/Cassatt, p. 9.

The Ballet from “Robert le Diable” – Degas – 1871 – Oil on Canvas                                                                            The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Dancer with a Bouquet – Degas – c. 1877 – 1878 – Pastel and Gourache over Monotype                 Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design

Rehearsal in the Studio – Degas – 1878 0 1879 – Egg Tempera on Canvas –                                                           Collection of Shellburne Museum Vermont

Dancer in the Dressing Room – Degas – c. 1878 – 1879 – Pastel and Gouache –                                                   Collection Oskar Reinhart

“Both artists use croppig to tease the viewer.” Jones, p. 11

Both Degas and Cassatt Employed the Newspaper As Theme In Their Paintings

The Ballet Class – Degas c. 1880 – Oil on Canvas – Philadelphia Museum of Art

[Artist’s Mother Reading Le Figaro – Cassatt  1877-1878 – Oil on Canvas – Private Collection

“The newspaper motif is an example of one of many themes in Degas and Cassatt’s visual dialogue. … The woman in the foreground of Degas’s The Ballet Class …. like Cassatt’s mother in Reading ‘Le Figaro,’ … also faces left and ignores the viewer… .  The idea of indifference…. [and] The issue of detachment was important in many works by Degas, as well as in those by Cassatt.”  Exhibition Catalog, p. 8

Portrait of Alexander J. Cassatt and His Son Robert Kelso Cassatt – 1884 –                                                    Oil on Canvas – Philadelphia Museum of Art

Henri Degas and His Niece – Degas –  1875 – 1876 – Oil on Canvas – The Art Institute of Chicago

“Newspapers also appear in Degas’s … Henri Degas and His Niece… and Cassatt’s … Cassatt and His Son…. Each considers men as caregivers to children, and each presents a rather somber sense of a relationship between child and adult…. A sense of detachment pervades the scene. ” Jones, Kimberly.  Degas/Cassatt, p. 5