In 1874, a 19-year-old Louisine Waldron Elder was studying at the Madame Del Sarte’s boarding school in Paris when she crossed paths with 30-year-old Mary Stevenson Cassatt. Despite their age difference, the two quickly developed a lifelong friendship.
“When we first met in Paris, [Cassatt] was very kind to me,” Louisine later wrote in her autobiography, “showing me the splendid things in the great city, making them still more splendid by opening my eyes to see their beauty through her own knowledge and appreciation.”
Mary Cassatt, Portrait of Louisine W. Havemeyer (1896). Photo: Francis G. Mayer/Corbis / VCG via Getty Images.
In addition to knowing her way around the French metropolis, Cassatt was an accomplished Impressionist painter. Born in Pennsylvania in 1844, she moved to Europe to study the old masters, becoming especially fascinated with the pastel drawings of Edgar Degas, a father of the artistic movement she herself went on to join.
“I used to go and flatten my nose against the window and absorb all I could of his art,” Cassatt once said of Degas. “It changed my life. I saw art then as I wanted to see it.”
Degas, whose vibrant colors and lively, expressive brushstrokes reflected the interior lives of his subjects, left a strong impression on Cassatt. His influence can be observed in some of her most successful works, including Little Girl in a Blue Armchair (1878) and The Loge (1878-80). One channels the freedom and innocence of a defiant girl who has yet to become conscious of her society’s gender norms; the other, the carefully curated behavior and appearance of women living in accordance to them.
Nowadays, Cassatt is remembered not only as an artist, but also as a sought-after advisor to prominent collectors of fine art, including the man Louisine would end up marrying, an American industrial tycoon by the name of Henry Osborne Havemeyer. His wealth exploded when he was named president of the American Sugar Refining Company in 1891, and Louisine insisted he invest in paintings selected by her friend Cassatt.
Mary Cassatt, Little Girl in a Blue Armchair (1878). Photo: Art Images via Getty Images.
“Miss Cassatt ever ready to recommend,” Louisine wrote of their lucrative partnership, “Mr. Havemeyer to buy, and I [Mrs. Havemeyer] to find a place for the pictures in our gallery.” She called Cassatt the “fairy godmother” of their collection, adding that “the best things I own have been bought on her judgement and advice.”
Mary Cassatt, The Loge, (c. 1878-1880). Photo: Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images.
Previously displayed in a virtual exhibition hosted by the Shelburne Museum in Vermont, most of the so-called Havemeyer Collection is currently stored at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Consisting of drawings, paintings, and sculptures, it includes works by Corot, Courbet, Manet, and Cézanne. Thanks to Cassatt, the Havemeyers were among the first Americans to purchase paintings by Monet, doing so long before he acquired international fame.
Although the total value of the couple’s creative investments is difficult to estimate, 19 paintings from the Havemeyer Collection were auctioned off for $16.8 million in 1983—a testament to Cassatt’s skill, knowledge, and foresight.
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