Mary Cassatt: After Impressionism
Over 75 paintings and works on paper, focused on Cassatt’s late 1880s onward period. Impressionism, Post-Impressionist experimentation, modern figuration, pastel, printmaking, and intimate domestic modernity.
Image credit
Mary Cassatt The Child’s BathDate: 1893 CC0 Public Domain Designation
Meet the artist
The Movement
Post-ImpressionismArtLovers Tip
Look at Cassatt’s women as protagonists, not accessories to a domestic scene. The power of this exhibition is in the shift: motherhood, childhood, and intimacy stop being “minor” subjects and become a radical way to paint modern life from a woman’s point of view.
Exhibition Highlights - What you'll see
Mary Cassatt (1844–1926) wasn’t just a pioneer of the Impressionist movement; she was a trailblazer who redefined what it meant to be a woman in the art world. Although she was born in Pennsylvania, Cassatt spent most of her life in France, where she became a leading voice in the vibrant Parisian art scene.
She is best loved for her intimate, honest glimpses into the lives of women and children. Inspired by her friend Edgar Degas and the elegant lines of Japanese prints, Cassatt developed a style that felt both soft and powerful. Her work did something revolutionary for the time: it showed women as active, thoughtful individuals rather than just passive subjects.
Beyond her own studio, Cassatt was a bridge between two worlds. She played a huge role in introducing Impressionism to American collectors, helping build the foundations of the major museum collections we enjoy today.
Marking the 100th anniversary of her passing, Mary Cassatt: After Impressionism invites you to explore a bold chapter in her career. During her most creative years—from the late 1880s into the early 1900s—Cassatt wasn’t afraid to experiment. This exhibition brings together her famous paintings and pastels alongside her intricate color prints and the story behind her ambitious mural for the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. Come discover the work of an artist who never stopped pushing the boundaries of her craft.
Worth the trip
Yes — especially if you want to rediscover Cassatt beyond the cliché of motherhood.
This exhibition matters because 2026 marks the centenary of Cassatt’s death, and several major museums are reassessing her importance this year. The Art Institute of Chicago’s show is part of that wider renewed attention to Cassatt’s modernity and independence.
Chicago is a powerful place to see Cassatt because the Art Institute has major holdings of Impressionist and modern art, and this exhibition gives space to a more complex Cassatt: not decorative, not secondary, not sentimental — but modern, ambitious, and deeply observant.
How to experience it
Don’t look for “sweet” motherhood first — look for composition, tension, and agency.
Pay attention to women’s gestures: reading, holding, looking, thinking, caring.
Compare paintings and prints: Cassatt’s printmaking helps reveal how experimental she really was.
Notice how private space becomes modern space.
Ask how much of art history changes when domestic life is treated as a serious subject.
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