In an era when few American women thought seriously about pursuing careers outside of marriage and motherhood, Mary Cassatt's ambition and professional independence were noteworthy and unique. Cassatt: A Retrospective traces the life of this great American artist through the correspondence and accomplishments she maintained over a lifetime.

Over 100 articles and documents - letters to and from friends and family members as well as reviews and commentaries on her work and associations - provide as intimate a perspective of this remarkable woman as one is likely to find anywhere.

The daughter of a prominent Pennsylvania businessman, Cassatt began her early training at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia where she formed relationships and made acquaintances that would last her entire life.

Carefully selected letters with fascinating descriptions of social events, professional meetings, meals, and homelife abroad span several decades to reveal Cassatt's thoughts and activities: her move to Paris to further her training; her thrill and uncertainty as her work is noticed by instructors and juries; her at once stormy and reverential friendship with Edgar Degas; and the self-sufficiency that emerges with her personal and professional maturity. Writings and reminiscences by many of her contemporaries including Ambroise Vollard, J. K.

Huysmans, Camille Pissarro, Felix Feneon, American collector Louisine Havemeyer, and Edgar Degas provide additional insight into the world and work of Mary Cassatt.

Cassatt was only thirty-three when she was invited to exhibit with the French Impressionists, and she remained the only American truly associated with this group. Unlike her fellow Impressionists, she was primarily a figure painter; however, she demonstrated the same qualities of color and light that made this radical new movement so recognizable.

Though she never married, Cassatt's finest and most distinctive trait is the sensitivity and honesty with which she depicted mothers and children, her favorite subject matter. Presented here are more than 200 illustrations (118 in color) of Cassatt's greatest and lesser-known works - paintings, pastels, and etchings.

Cassatt's choice of profession and marital status made her a modern woman by Victorian standards, but her paintings reveal a belief in the sacredness of a mother's love and an appreciation for women's traditional roles.