Mary Cassatt: Painting the Modern Woman

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

Directed by Ali Ray (Frida Kahlo) and featuring the world’s most eminent Cassatt curators and scholars (all women), this new feature film MARY CASSATT: PAINTING THE MODERN WOMAN reveals how this classically trained American artist came to join a group of Parisian radicals – the Impressionists – a movement that transformed the history of art.

Mary Cassatt, born in Pennsylvania in 1844, lived much of her adult life in France, to the extent that she became not an American artist but a French artist. In 1868, her painting A Mandolin Player became her first work to be accepted by the Paris Salon, the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Edgar Degas saw Cassatt’s work at the Salon and, in 1877, he asked her to exhibit with a new group called the Impressionists.

Cassatt’s connection to the Impressionists, however, is only a tiny part of her story. Presenting her astonishing prints, pastels, and paintings, the film introduces us to this surprising, compelling, yet often-overlooked artist, whose own career was as full of contradictions as the women she painted.

· She printed, sketched, and painted dozens of images of mothers and children yet she never married or had children herself.

· She revealed the tragedy and beauty of women's lives in the 19th century, giving voice and dignity to the overlooked domestic sphere.

· She was a classically trained artist but chose to join the Impressionists.

MARY CASSATT: PAINTING THE MODERN WOMAN follows the progression of Cassatt’s work, her meticulous study of the Old Masters and traditional techniques while also exposing her frustration at not finding a style that truly expressed her desire to be modern until she discovered the Impressionists.

This film tells a riveting tale of great social and cultural change at a time when women were fighting for their rights and the language of art was being completely rewritten.

Mary Cassatt and her modern women were at the heart of it all.


“Riveting” – Live For Film

“Unmissable” – Herald Scotland

“Wonderful” – Cornish and Devon Post

⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Sydney Arts Guide

“[This] film… celebrates an Impressionist painter who has been unjustly neglected” – Sussex Arts Guide

“Immerse yourself in the work of this often-overlooked artist and listen to insights from curators and scholars that uncover the deeper meanings of these portraits.” - Sight & Sound

“A cinematic immersion into the world’s best loved art, accompanied by insights from leading historians and arts critics” – Knox Gazette

“This is an excellent opportunity for art enthusiasts and historians to learn more about the incredible work of Mary Cassatt and to celebrate the often-unsung contributions of women to the world of art” – The Hovarian

“The world’s most eminent Cassatt curators enlighten this story of social and cultural change” – Film Euphoria

“Art lovers will enjoy the way the camera lingers on Cassatt’s gorgeous Japanese-inspired later works” – Total Film