Available October 2026
Mary G. Morton, with a foreword by Lauren Elkin
A sweeping reconsideration of the artist we thought we knew—and the forces that obscured her legacy.
Fiercely ambitious and independent, Mary Cassatt defied expectations to become one of the most radical artists of the Impressionist movement, though she was—and remains—the least understood. Cassatt commanded and manipulated strains of old master and contemporary painting to express her female subjectivity through a brilliantly modern oeuvre on par with those of the most revered Impressionists. However, mishandled by the Parisian art establishment during her lifetime, and later by art historians and curators, she became known almost exclusively as a sentimentalizing painter of mothers and children.
How did this happen to the most aspiring, revolutionary female artist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries? In Cassatt Reconsidered, author Mary G. Morton probes this central question and more, demonstrating how Cassatt disturbed conventional ideals of femininity, childhood, and maternity, an uncompromising feat for which she paid dearly during her lifetime and in the annals of art historiography.
Vibrantly illustrated with more than 100 images, Cassatt Reconsidered rewards readers with a fuller understanding of an artist who stands apart for daring to express, on her own terms, the unique, intimate experiences of modern women.
Mary G. Morton is curator and head of the French paintings department at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. She is the coauthor of
Paris 1874 (2024). In 2018, the French government awarded her the title Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. Lauren Elkin is an acclaimed American and French writer and translator. She is the award-winning author of
Art Monsters (2023) and
Flâneuse (2016), among other publications.
208 pages
7 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches
105 color and 6 b/w illustrations
ISBN 979-8-88712-050-8
hardcover
Getty Publications
Imprint: Getty Publications
2026