Mary Cassatt (born May 22, 1844, Allegheny City [now part of Pittsburgh], Pennsylvania, U.S. - died June 14, 1926, Château de Beaufresne, near Paris, France), American painter and printmaker who was part of the group of Impressionists working in and around Paris. She took as her subjects almost exclusively women and children.
Cassatt was the daughter of a banker and lived in Europe for five years as a young girl. She was tutored privately in art in Philadelphia and attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1861-65, but she preferred a less academic approach and in 1866 traveled to Europe to study with such European painters as Jean-Léon Gérôme and Thomas Couture.
Her first major showing was at the Paris Salon of 1872; four more annual Salon exhibitions followed.