Mary Cassatt’s “Children Playing on the Beach” adeptly expresses children’s spontaneous gestures and attitudes. Cassatt (1844 – 1926) conveyed their endearing awkwardness and intense concentration through charming expressions and appealingly clumsy body language. Repetitive accents of dark blue dresses and white pinafores accentuate surface patterns, while the girls’ arms, legs and heads create solid areas of color. As the ocean background dissolves into haze, the girls become the work’s focal point.
Affluence did not prevent Mary Cassatt (1844 – 1926) from becoming a professional artist in an era when wealthy American women did not usually work. Studying in the United States and later moving to France, Cassatt considered the work of Edgar Degas to be life-altering, prompting her to become a prominent Impressionist. Cassatt principally painted children and scenes of motherhood with simplicity, energetic brushwork and glowing colors. Her work graces many private and public collections, including Washington, D.C.’s National Gallery and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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