Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas both influenced each other

Comparing the impressionism of Monet and Cassatt

Claude Monet and Mary Cassatt were both Impressionists, but that's not all they had in common. This quick comparative analysis of Monet's "The Beach at Trouville" and Cassatt's "Little Girl in a Blue Armchair" shows how both paintings subtly comment on the class of their subjects.

How Cassatt's early life influenced her art

The painter came from an affluent background but was determined to become an artist, a decision that was at odds with her father's wishes. Still, she began art school at 15, where she was one of the few female students and not permitted to paint portraits of live models. This brief documentary from The Art Tourist explains how those formative experiences taught Cassatt to challenge conventional approaches in her work.

Mary Cassatt carved space for women in the Impressionist movement

The painter was one of three women to exhibit with the French artists, and the only American. Cassatt broke ground by focusing on subjects largely ignored by the male-dominated art world, such as maternity and womanhood.

Mary Cassatt's 'The Child's Bath' was a rare sight for 19th-century art

Drs. Beth Harris and Steven Zucker note that this portrait of an intimate moment between mother and daughter might have been out of place in 1893, but that its subject matter alludes to spiritual images from the Renaissance or Baroque periods.

How Mary Cassatt helped establish the legacy of the Impressionists

The painter encouraged the wealthy New Yorker, Louisine Havemeyer, to visit Paris, where she introduced her to the work of the Impressionists. The Havemeyer family purchased over 200 Impressionist works, which were eventually donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, effectively enshrining the movement in the public consciousness.

How Mary Cassatt's sister acted as her muse

Lydia Cassatt moved to Paris to live with her sister and manage the household so Mary could work on her art. In the process, she became the subject of many of Mary's paintings, and when she grew ill, Cassatt captured her slow decline in vivid detail, an act that ultimately changed the course of her career.

The frenemies who shaped Modern Art

Matisse and Picasso are two of the biggest names in Modern Art, with works that redefined the possibilities of painting in the 20th century. While they were often cast as rivals, this Artnet article highlights their more complicated relationship, which was somewhere between a friendship, a mentorship, and an ongoing competition.

How Mary Cassatt pioneered printmaking

In 1890, the artist attended an exhibition in Paris featuring a vast collection of 725 Japanese woodblock prints. Inspired by the work, she told a friend she could not stop thinking about "color on copper," and eventually used a metal plate "intaglio" technique to execute her vision. This video recreates how she made it happen.

Cassatt participated in a fundraiser for women's suffrage against her family's wishes

The painter took part in a 1915 charity exhibition in support of women's right to vote. That offended some of her family members, especially her sister-in-law, who were opposed to the cause. In response, Cassatt sold works that had originally been designated for them.

Salvador Dalí and Coco Chanel bonded over art and fashion

In the late 1930s, Chanel hosted the eccentric artist to like and work in her home. Despite their differing styles, the two icons collaborated, and Chanel even inspired Dalí to mimic her perfume in his artwork.

Georgia O'Keeffe and her sisters had an artistic rivalry

Despite their close relationship, a rift between the siblings emerged after Ida and Catherine, Georgia's younger sisters, began exhibiting their own paintings. Some also speculate that their dynamic was influenced by Georgia's husband, Alfred Stieglitz, who expressed romantic interest in Ida.

Picasso's Blue Period was inspired by loss

Picasso's friend Casagemas, a poet he met in Barcelona, died by suicide in 1901. The event shook the young Picasso, leading to what would later be called his Blue Period. The work from this time reflected the loss of Casagemas and others, as well as broader themes of suffering and marginalization in society, portraying their faces and other outcasts of society in elegiac hues of blue and other cold colors. The era is one of the artist’s most famous bodies of work, including several iconic paintings, such as "The Death of Casagemas," pictured below.

Jacques Louis David was a prime foil for the romantics

French painter Jacques Louis David was a defining figure of the neoclassical movement, using historical scenes and a polished sheen to present work that was as close to the real world as humanly possible. That made him an obvious foil for the romantics, who embraced raw feeling over accuracy.

Art Deco formally began in France in 1925

The design style—often associated with 1920s New York—is named after the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, which featured many works in the style, which was already popular in France.

Learn about the relationship between Thomas Edison and Henry Ford

Despite their 16-year age difference, legendary inventor Thomas Edison and Henry Ford developed a close relationship after meeting at a convention in New York. The two—alongside environmentalist John Burroughs and Harvey Firestone, the founder of Firestone Tire—were known as the "Four Vagabonds" and were famous for their long roadtrips, which were often highly publicized.

One of Sartre and de Beauvoir's lovers accused them of exploitation

The philosophical duo's open relationship sometimes included shared partners, including de Beauvoir's students. One of those students, Bianca Lamblin, wrote a book, "A Disgraceful Affair," about the experience and characterized it as sexual exploitation.

Basquiat impressed Warhol by quickly painting a picture of the two men

After Jean-Michel Basquiat was introduced to Andy Warhol in 1982, Warhol took a Polaroid photo of the two of them, and Basquiat ran home (about a mile and a half) to paint it. Two hours later, he returned with Doz Cabezas. The act impressed Warhol, who mentored the young artist.

The 'Old Guitarist' challenged art's standards of beauty

For much of Western art history, the definition of “beauty” in art was dictated by academies rather than personal taste. Artists like Picasso challenged these standards with works considered “ugly” for discarding anatomical accuracy or linear perspective in favor of a feeling.

Why art history is filled with miserable brides

Paintings from the 19th century are filled with unhappy brides. The women are often visibly disturbed by their pending nuptials, sometimes even during the wedding ceremony. This Artnet article unpacks four famous examples of this trend, analyzing how and why the respective artists portrayed these disappointed figures.

Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings are often assumed to be sexual, though the artist claimed she was simply interested in highlighting the beauty of flowers that most people neglect

Understanding the relationship between Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson

One of Dickinson's most significant pen pals was Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a minister, politician, and writer, who became a trusted creative adviser and, after her death, one of the editors of her first published volumes. Their relationship began after Dickinson sent him a letter asking, "Are you too deeply occupied to say if my Verse is alive?"

Jackson Pollock and others developed 'action painting,' highlighting the creative process

A subcategory of performance art, action painting emerged in 1945 as a way to capture a moment-by-moment view of the creative process through painting. For these pieces, the physical act of painting is as important as the finished product. This short explainer video covers the philosophy behind action painting, as well as exploring the works of several well-known action painters, including Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, and Mark Rothko.

Bebop's freedom inspired the Beat Generation

The jazz style took off in the 1940s, mesmerizing listeners with its wild, improvised solos. It had a particular impact on the writers of the Beat Generation, including Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, who saw in bebop's freedom a model for what they could achieve through the written word. Beat writers like Lawrence Ferlighetti and Kenneth Rexroth even incorporated live jazz in their poetry readings.

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

How Martha Graham challenged ballet's rigidity

Ballet prized lightness, but Graham's choreography emphasized weight. This essay explores how her work broke from European influences to embrace American idioms, much as her American contemporaries in jazz and literature did.

Historians theorize Vincent Van Gogh suffered from Ménière's disease or epilepsy

A century after researchers suggested he suffered from epilepsy, some researchers in the 1990s began to support an alternate diagnosis: Ménière's disease, since he had suffered from severe, repeated attacks of disabling vertigo. Still, some researchers remain skeptical of the Ménière's diagnosis. One posits that Van Gogh had temporal epilepsy complicated by his absinthe consumption.

Charles Dickens' novels inspired a young Norman Rockwell

Rockwell is considered a narrative painter who tells stories through his portraits of everyday Americans. The interest in using images to tell stories began at a young age, when his father read Dickens aloud to him while the young Norman illustrated the books’ scenes.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

In 1945, Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and legendary animator Walt Disney began collaborating on a short film that was not completed until 2003, years after both men had died.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

The tragic Pulitzer Prize-winning image 'The Vulture and the Little Girl' (1993) generated controversy, raised concerns about ethics in photography, and eventually led to the photographer's death.

The concept of phantom limbs, the perception that amputated limbs are still present, dates back to a French military surgeon in the 16th century.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

Meet the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence—most of whom didn't put pen to paper until August 2, 1776—and see their original signatures.

Sears sold DIY house kits starting at $600 in its famous catalog from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in roughly 10,000 'Sears and Roebuck houses' being built.

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

Shooting stars, or meteors, are fragments of asteroids and comets that burn up as they enter Earth's atmosphere, creating streaks in the sky called meteor showers.