Art Masterpiece: Woman with Dog,

Mary Cassatt (1845-1927)

Keywords:Impressionism, Portrait,

Foreground and Background

Grade:1st Grade

Month:April

Activity:Teacher’s Portrait

Meet the Artist:

Mary Cassatt was born in Pennsylvania over 150 years ago!

Her family was very wealthy and she was able to travel to Europe as a young girl. There she fell in love with the art she saw in museums. Mary knew she wanted to become an artist herself.

As a young woman, she moved to France.

In 1877, a famous artist named Edgar Degas enjoyed Cassatt’s work and became her good friend. He invited her to join a group of artists known as the Impressionists. Their style of artwork was called Impressionism. They were known for painting “ moments of everyday life“. They focused on using many brushstrokes, less details, light, color and informal poses. These artists were less realistic and created an "impression" of an object within their artwork.

Being invited into the Impressionists was a great honor for an artist and especially woman. Back then, not many women were artists.

Mary is most remembered for her portraits (paintings or photographs of a person or people) of children and their mothers. She was very good at showing the relationships with tenderness.

Cassatt lived the rest of her life out in France. Although she never married or had children, she continued to use children and their mothers as models, using candy to keep the children happy.

When Mary Cassatt died at 81, her home in France became a home for abandoned children.

About the Work:

A large part of Woman with Dog seems to be white. But look closely, the artist has mixed the white with many other colors: red, yellow, brown, blue. Those mixed colors create shadows, ruffles and folds of the woman’s dress and hat. Cassatt does not use pure colors in this painting. Instead she mixes greens, blues and yellows to paint the trees, and black, orange, brown gold and yellow to paint the dog. Notice the colors she has used for the buildings and other parts of the painting.

The dog and the woman are in what we call the foreground of the painting, the part of the painting that looks closest to us. Things in the foreground are usually large and show more details. (Demonstrate this by holding the dog close-up for the students to look at. How does it look to them? Then move it far away. How has it changed? The buildings are in the background of the painting-the part that looks farthest away from us.

Possible Questions:

What do you see in this picture?

What do you a call artwork that shows people or animals? (A portrait)

What is the woman holding in her lap?

Where do you think the woman is sitting? (On a balcony).

What is she looking at?

What is closest to you in the painting (foreground)? (The dog)

What is furthest away in the painting (background)? (The gray buildings)

Activity: Watercolor Portraits-

Materials Needed: thick white paper, pencils, erasers, watercolor sets, paintbrushes, water cups, tissues, newspapers to cover the desks

Optional Props: - Add some fun by bringing (or wearing) clothes, hat stuffed dog, etc.

Process:

1.Provide each child with supplies and instruct them to paint A MODEL (usually either yourself or another volunteer or the teacher.) Keep it simple and draw lightly with a pencil. Make sure the “model” is in the center of your paper so they are easy to see.

2.When done, use the watercolors to paint the portrait and any details you’d like to add in the background.

3.Using whatever colors you wish, show your personality and mood.

4.Do not let your paper get too wet because it may rip. You can use a tissue to blot up any excess paint

5.Title and sign the masterpiece!