Mary Cassatt letters
name: label: Creator
content: Cassatt, Mary, 1844-1926
label: Names
content: Cassatt, Robert Kelso
topic: label: Occupation
content: Painters -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
label: Occupation
content: Painters -- France -- Paris
label: Occupation
content: Printmakers -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
label: Occupation
content: Printmakers -- France -- Paris
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Women painters
label: Topic
content: Women printmakers
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Items in this collection are gifts of various donors. The letters to Peter and Vollard were donated by Charles Feinberg in 1955.  The letters to William T. Evans, Miss Lamb, and Miss Stillman were transferred from the National Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institution in 1980.  An obituary and the letters to Robert Kelso Cassatt and his wife Minnie were donated by Alexander J. Cassatt Jr., the great nephew of Mary Cassatt, in 1986. 

The letters written by Cassatt to Eugene Vail and Mabel and Mathilde Valet were loaned by Ann Donohue and microfilmed on reel N/70-077 and were returned to the lender after filming.
creator: label: Creator
content: Cassatt, Mary, 1844-1926
setName: label: See more items in
content: Mary Cassatt letters
abstract: label: Summary
content: This collection of painter Mary Cassatt letters measures 0.2 linear feet and date from 1882-1926. The bulk of the letters are to Cassatt's nephew, Robert Kelso Cassatt, and to his wife Minnie regarding family, mutual friends, and travel.  The remaining letters are to friends regarding purchases of artwork, travel, and personal news. There is also one news clipping of Cassatt's obituary.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Painter Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) lived and worked in Paris, France.  She is one of the preeminent Impressionists known for her depictions of both the social and domestic lives of women and their children.

Cassatt was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania and began her art studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts at the age of sixteen.  In 1865, she traveled to Paris to further her art studies under the private tutelage of Jean-Léon Gérôme and Thomas Couture, and augmented these studies with daily copying at the Louvre.  From 1868 to 1877, she traveled to Italy, Spain, Belgium, and Holland to view and copy the old masters and produced works that were accepted into the Paris Salon.  With the encouragement of Edgar Degas, Cassatt began painting in the avant-garde Impressionist style in 1877.  For the next ten years, Cassatt exhibited Impressionist paintings to critical international acclaim.  After 1887, she began to experiment with other mediums and techniques, though she continued to focus her subject matter on the lives of women and children.  Through the 1890s, she became a mentor to young American artists, acted as an advisor to American art collectors, and served as an ambassador for various art institutions.  In 1904, she received France's Légion d'Honneur and continued producing works through the 1900s.  In 1915, Cassatt stopped painting due to her failing eyesight, and lived in Le Mesnil-Théribus, France until her death in 1926.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 0.2 Linear Feet
label: Extent
content: 1 Microfilm reel
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1882-1926
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.cassmarl
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Microfilm reels
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged as 1 series.

Series 1: Mary Cassatt letters, 1892-1926 (0.2 linear feet; Box 1)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Each acquisition was preliminarily processed and microfilmed separately onto reels D8, 2787, and 3684.  All materials were merged, processed, and described by Judy Ng in 2014 with funding provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Material loaned for microfilming on N/70-077 (and returned to Ann Donohue after filming) was added to the finding aid by Jayna Josefson in 2025 and the microfilm was digitized in 2025 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Collections Information System (CIS) IRM Pool Fund.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: This collection was digitized in its entirety in 2014 and is available on the Archives of American Art's website.

Materials lent for microfilming are available on 35mm microfilm reel N70-77. The microfilm has been digitized and is available on the Archives of American Art website.
originalsloc: label: Existence and Location of Originals
content: Material lent for microfilming (reel N70-77) by Ann Donohue was returned to the lender after filming.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: This collection of painter Mary Cassatt letters measures 0.2 linear feet and date from 1882-1926. The bulk of the letters are to Cassatt's nephew, Robert Kelso Cassatt, and to his wife Minnie regarding family, mutual friends, and travel.  The remaining letters are to friends regarding purchases of artwork, travel, and personal news. There is also one news clipping of Cassatt's obituary.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: The Archives of American Art also holds the Frederick A. Sweet research material on Mary Cassatt and James McNeill Whistler; Nancy Hale research material on Mary Cassatt; the Mary Cassatt collection (reel C1); and the Mary Cassatt correspondence with Emily Sartain (reel 3658).