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American artist Mary Cassatt was considered one of “Les Trois Grandes Dames of Impressionism” alongside Berthe Morisot and Marie Bracquemond. Born in Pittsburgh on May 22, 1844, to a very wealthy family. Her father Robert Simpson Cassatt made a fortune in the stock market and with land sales. Her mother Katherine came from a banking family that was well educated and believed her own daughter should be as well. 

In 1866, she packed up her brushes and moved to Paris, but the city of artists wasn’t that much easier. Being a woman held her back, she couldn’t go to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and had to find her own teacher that would take an eager young lady.  Jean-Leon Gérôme who also taught a long list of artists saw something in Mary and took her under his wing.  Spending most of her days with Gérôme in the Louvre copying paintings and mingling with the other young artists of Paris. In 1868 she began to study under Thomas Couture who had also been Manet’s teacher. 

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