Mary Cassatt (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists)

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As an admirer of the Impressionists, this book appealed to me. I enjoyed the child-focused text. When I shared this book with some 3rd graders, they were interested in how young Mary "camped" out at the art museums or galleries. ( )

An interesting biography of Mary Cassatt. ( )

This book is about the life of Mary Cassatt. As a young girl Mary became very interested in paintings while her family lived in Pairs, France for a few years. Mary was very content on painting and moved back to France at the age of 22. Mary felt after years of art school that the best way to learn about painting was to copy famous paintings. Mary successfully got three of her painting into the Pairs Salon. Shortly after Mary was approached by one of the Impressionist Edgar Degas and Mary agreed to join their movement. Degas impacted Mary’s paintings in a very large way. Mary became know as one of America’s great artist.

This book was intriguing. It did not just show the artwork of Mary Cassatt, it also expresses the work of Degas and other Impressionist, which influenced her. The book also showed little cartoon clips of Mary’s life that would help intrigue the interest of a younger audiences. I really enjoyed being able to look at this book and see Mary’s work first hand instead of having to explore other sources to understand the book.

I could use this book to help students explore different types of artist. The book includes Mary Cassatt’s artwork so students could look at the works and expand on them and how they relate to Impressionist styles. I could also use this book to help show students the path that Mary helped lay for other female artist. Students could view both male and female artwork and the difference between the two. This book along has multiple uses. ( )