Mrs. Robert Simpson Cassatt

American painter Mary Cassatt painted this portrait of her mother, Katherine Kelso Johnston Cassatt, in 1889. The American Impressionist was known for intimate depictions of women and family members, and her mother was a frequent subject.

Katherine Cassatt (1816-1895) was the matriarch of a prominent Philadelphia family. She supported her daughter's unconventional choice to become an artist and moved to Paris with the family, where Mary built her career among the French Impressionists. Edgar Degas became a close colleague and admirer of Cassatt's work.

Cassatt was the only American artist to exhibit with the Impressionists in Paris. Her portraits of mothers and children became her signature subject, though she never married or had children herself. This painting is currently in a private collection, one of several portraits she made of her mother over the years.