Mother's Day inspiration: Cassatt's Mother and Child pastel works of art (updated)

 

Mary Cassatt has been one of my favourite artists for a long time. I love using pastels and she used the medium to great effect. Her mother and child artworks have a warmth to them that draws one in. Several years ago, I went to a Cassatt exhibition in London. I came away even more obsessed with her work. So, it was a no-brainer that, given it's mother's day today, I'd want to do a pastel work on the theme of mother and child. I chose to personalise it by drawing a scene from my childhood with me in a hug with my mother. A snapshot of my daily life - I had a hug every day with my mother. Daily life was also the main feature of Impressionism not religion or mythology. I'm sitting on her knee, my legs wound round her left leg, my arms around her waist as she holds me in an embrace. 

Gesture and gaze were two important themes in Cassatt's works, so I've chosen an interlocking position between myself and my mother. If you were to draw the shape of our arms/hands, it would create a tilted oval shape. Use of space on the page and hand gestures are central for Cassatt and in this artwork of mine above, I have depicted our close, encircling arms and hands to resemble /symbolise our close bond. Cassatt wanted to illustrate, through her works, that closeness between mother and child is not something which happens automatically, thus she didn't create a sentimental mood. This can be seen in her works where the gazes are not direct eye-to-eye contact. Her mother and child artworks are possibly based on psychological theories (e.g. Freud) I haven't drawn upon for my artworks, here or elsewhere. There were other artists she knew well that also painted mother and child works e.g. Renoir. Unlike Cassatt, I've depicted a direct gaze, as a way of showing an emotional bond between us in addition to the physical closeness of hugging in an outdoor space rather than in a confined indoor space, such as the home. My figure drawing is three times the size of our dimensions in the original photograph. I have panned out to a full length viewpoint and shown some expanse of space around the figures. I was keen to make the composition vertical rather than keep to Cassatt's horizontal line between mother and child in close-up.

Clothes played an important part in Cassatt's art. So, in my work here, I've used modern clothes to show my mother's active, sporty personality. Although Cassatt depicts the women and girls in a passive way, I chose to show us as both active, in motion and sporty - we had played tennis together in the same clothes as depicted here just prior to this photo. My mother's relaxed body pose sums up her laid-back personality. My legs wrapped around her left leg and my arms round her back illustrate my physical strength (as I support my own body weight) and my athleticism. Cassatt's focus was on the child whereas I've used the gesture of the embrace and the eye-to-eye contact between us to enable the viewer to see both me and my mother as the focal point. We are interacting and communicating with each other in a meaningful, non-sentimental way.

I love this photo and I thought it would make an unusual composition. Pastel was popular at the end of the nineteenth century, the pre-Impressionist era. Pastel has an immediacy about it and, because it's matte, has an honesty within it. A naturalness, which I think Cassatt's artworks have in abundance. This matte quality was considered, back then, to be radical and breaking academic rules about art. Now we think it's classical and traditional. Luckily for us, she did experiment by breaking the rules because, otherwise, we wouldn't have her amazing artworks to enjoy. Like Hunter, she was a colourist but within Impressionism. So, I'm following on from Sothebys Sunday Sketch, a fortnight ago, which featured the Scottish colourist, George Leslie Hunter. 

Like the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, I juxtaposed colours opposite each other in the colour wheel I used. This makes the subject matter more vibrant and intense. I chose vibrant green for the background because this is a colour Cassatt used for her background 'Mother and Child' (in pastel, 1914). Under her pastel works she used charcoal which remained visible. I used pencil which hasn't remained visible. I deliberately drew over it.  Cassatt liked to leave areas of her work unfinished where you can see the colour of the paper. Although, much as I love the unfinished look and do it myself sometimes, I haven't done so in this one. Nevertheless, I've gone for the mild version of Cassatt's technique (unlike traditional pastel technique which I've used on my mother's jumper) by leaving gaps between the pastel marks. This is particularly clear on my blue dress in the pastel work. No colour symbolism is intended in the work.

Light features strongly for both Impressionists and Colourists and Cassatt was in line with this. I've stayed with this importance of light, similar to Cassatt, by varying the amount of pastel powder I applied to the textured paper. To make the background flatter and recede I applied pastel powder by doing broad strokes with the flat side of the pastel stick and smudging it in with my finger. In order for the subject matter to stand out, I used the top of the pastel stick to draw bold marks that give a thickness to the lines. It also gives off thick pastel powder which I blew on to disperse the excess powder but which, nevertheless, still left the thickness of the mark. Unlike Cassatt who used steam to create various pastel textures, such as clumping, I used dry pastels only. Playing with the pastel powder helps create light.

In my previous painting, 'Self-portrait with Flowers and Hat in Oil' (previous post), I similarly wanted a flat, receding background so that the subject matter felt closer. I achieved this flat background by smudging the green oil paint thinly and evenly with a kitchen towel. The green complements the deep reds but doesn't overpower them due to its flat, softer texture.

Just because Cassatt drew mother and child pastel works doesn't mean she was shy and retiring or that she restricted herself to this subject matter. Despite her father's disapproval, she studied art, even though, like now, the learning experience and content was not the same as for men. She spent most of her years in France, being already fluent in French and German, even though she was American. There was more freedom of movement back then, than even now! The Scottish Colourists equally just went off to France on a whim. Cassatt was close friends with Degas (even though they didn't always agree with each other) having a studio very close to his. Yet, she remained an active feminist throughout her life campaigning for women's right to vote, as well as, equal educational and career opportunities. This led certain critics to label her as a masculine woman who does masculine artworks.  Which goes to show that a masculine woman is simply one that doesn't just passively sit in a corner twiddling her fingers. We're still fighting for the same rights in the 21st century as she was in the 19th and early 20th, and we are still seen in much the same way! Time to finally bring about long awaited change!

Thus, Cassatt is an artist we should celebrate at any time but especially so on Mother's Day because she's a feminist and portrays the mother/child relationship in a non-ideological (political, religious, gender stereotypical) way. She depicts them as having a close bond but which, at the same time, allows them both to have their own individuality! I have done the same in my pastel artwork but changed certain aspects e.g. direction of gaze to show that emotional bonding doesn't mean a loss of separate identity!