Mary Cassatt: painting the modern woman

Born to a wealthy family in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia in 1844, Mary Cassatt began her training at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1860, when she was 16, one of the few institutions where women were allowed to study. She moved to Paris in 1865, with her indomitable mother Katherine Kelso Johnston acting as a chaperone. Here, Mary set about studying L'art pompier - academic and historical…