Mary Cassatt

Title: Autumn (Profile of Lydia)

Might as well start profiling traditional artists and painters too because I’ve been exposed to many of them as of late and do not want to forget their names. They’re really very awesome, seriously. Well, I don’t really have to profile them myself since there are always wiki articles, but hey, writing about them builds retention! I hope!

Discovered Mary Cassatt today as a friend linked me to the image shown above. Cassatt is an American female painter who worked mainly in France and was a friend of Edgar Degas, whom I also like very much. She is part of the Impressionism movement.

I was very taken with the work above because of the uniqueness of the colours and brush strokes. Really reminded me of compressed wood chips in construction material, and was amazing that an arrangement of this sort can be used to construct an immediately discernible shape. I also very much like the coordination of colours and the way the face stands out. Really good shading, too, those blue hues, geez! Would love to see this in person so I can know what its true colours are like (digital representations seem to have varying degrees of hues.) It seems to be housed in the Petit Palais in Paris right now. Will pay a visit there if I get the chance.

Another work that I liked very much was At The Theatre. Brilliant use of those shades for colouring, extremely beautiful and well-coordinated! Really can’t get enough of artists and painters using blue and/or purple for shadows, the just give off such a soft touch. Also, I quite like the face, I could keep looking at it forever and it would still seem difficult to decipher. Geez, such depth!