Theme · Modern Life

Cassatt and Degas: An Exchange

For about a decade Cassatt and Degas traded criticism, techniques and works, with Degas as her main adviser.

Degas met Cassatt in 1877 and invited her to show with the independent group. Their friendship lasted until his death in 1917.

Both came from prosperous banking families and preferred the human figure to landscape.
Both made printmaking central to their work, and for a time they worked on prints together.
Degas kept buying Cassatt's work, and she steered American collectors such as Louisine Havemeyer toward his.

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