Mary Cassatt: Painting the Modern Woman

Released to coincide with International Women’s Day.

– Eye For Film

Mary Cassatt made a career painting the lives of the women around her. Her radical images showed them as intellectual, curious and engaging, which was a major shift in the way women appeared in art.

Presenting her astonishing prints, pastels and paintings, this film introduces us to the often-overlooked Impressionist whose own career was as full of contradiction as the women she painted.

“Fascinating and moving” – The Guardian

She printed, sketched, and painted dozens of images of mothers and children yet she never married or had children herself. She was a classically trained artist but chose to join a group of Parisian radicals – the Impressionists – a movement that transformed the language of art.

“A luminous, fascinating look at the life and times of… Mary Cassatt”
– Sydney Arts Guide

The world’s most eminent Cassatt curators and scholars help tell this riveting tale of great social and cultural change; a time when women were fighting for their rights and the language of art was completely re-written. Mary Cassatt and her modern women were at the heart of it all.

• Despite being a prolific painter of women, Cassatt detested being described as a ‘woman painter’.
• She was born in America and became one of America’s most well-known artists.

Directed by Ali Ray

Running time: 93 minutes