Mary Cassatt: Impressionist Painter - Tapa dura

Illustrated with Mary Cassatt's own paintings, this inspiring biography of a girl determined to make her own living as an artist celebrates Cassatt's lifelong artistic journey and her acceptance and success as the only American member of the French Impressionists.

When she was just fifteen years old, Mary persuaded her parents to enroll her in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. At twenty-one, she crossed the Atlantic to continue her art studies, traveling throughout Europe and studying the old masters. By the time she purchased a home near Paris with money earned from her paintings, she was a world-renowned artist and a heroine to American art students studying abroad.

Cassatt portrayed loving moments captured between a mother and child in her signature work. The nineteen Cassatt paintings included here highlight her broad range of styles, demonstrating her combination of the old masters' style with that of the new Impressionists.

By the time Mary died in 1926 at the age of eighty-two, she had received one of France's highest awards, and America had praised her as one of the best female painters of all time. Her work was purchased by many major museums worldwide, where her artistic legacy and independent spirit live on in light and color.

Lois Harris grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where she spent many Saturdays at the Brooklyn Art Museum fascinated by art from around the world. Her fiction, nonfiction, and photographs have appeared in Highlights, Hopscotch, Fun for Kidz, and My Friend children's magazines. She is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and the Authors Guild. She lives with her family and two cats in Anacortes, Washington, where she still enjoys visiting museums and learning about art. This is her first book.