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(piano music playing)

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Steven: When historians talk[br]about late 19th-century Paris,

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they often talk about[br]a culture of display,

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and this is a painting[br]that is all about that.

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Beth: We're looking at[br]Mary Cassatt's painting,

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Woman with a Pearl Necklace in a Loge,

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and this is, perhaps,[br]Mary Cassatt's sister

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pictured in the Paris opera house.

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She's sitting in a private booth,

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and we can see behind her a mirror,

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which reflects all the other[br]private booths in the opera house.

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Steven: So the Paris opera house,

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situated at the intersection[br]of the Grand Boulevards,

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is a building which is[br]a kind of jewel itself,

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but that also puts its[br]occupants on display.

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In other words, the[br]stage of the opera house

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is not simply where[br]the ballet takes place,

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but the stage is also the audience.

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Beth: The architecture[br]of the Paris opera house

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enabled seeing and being seen,

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and afforded numerous opportunities

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in small, little balconies and spaces

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where one could glimpse the[br]fashionable elite of Paris,

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and we certainly feel[br]that we're looking at

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one of the members of that[br]elite in this painting

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by Mary Cassatt.

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Steven: What you said is exactly right.

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Look at the composition.

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Mary Cassatt must have been[br]turned away from the stage

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looking into the box towards her sister,

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and Lydia is, in turn, looking[br]back out towards the audience,

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and so we're seeing Lydia[br]the way that the audience

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would have seen her, had[br]they glanced into this box.

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She is this object of display[br]within this jewel box.

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Beth: But Cassatt doesn't paint[br]herself reflected in the mirror,

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where she must have been[br]as she looked at Lydia

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and painted her.

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Steven: So this is a painting[br]that really does show

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the opulence of imperial France.

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The moment that's being represented[br]is clearly intermission.

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The chandelier has been lowered[br]into the space of the audience.

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The lights are up, and so the[br]audience's gaze has shifted

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from the stage to themselves.

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Beth: So Cassatt's family,[br]although it was very wealthy,

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actually her father refused[br]to support her desire

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to be an artist,

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and although he paid for[br]her basic living expenses,

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refused to support her art[br]supplies and her studio

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where she painted.

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Steven: This, despite real support from

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the leading artists of the day.

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She was a close friend of Degas,

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who had enormous respect for her ability,

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and she was an extraordinary painter,

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in every way a peer of the great[br]impressionist painters in Paris.

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Beth: This painting displays[br]a virtuoso technique.

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Mary Cassatt gained her[br]knowledge of painting

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from a variety of sources,[br]but it was difficult

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because she was a woman.

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Steven: Her first formal classes were at

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the Pennsylvania Academy of Art,

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but women were not allowed[br]to study from the nude,

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even from within the[br]context of art school.

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Beth: And like many[br]artists of her generation,

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they moved to Paris where there[br]was a little bit more freedom

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for women who were aspiring artists.

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Although she couldn't enter[br]the Ăcole des Beaux-Arts

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because she was a woman,

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she did enter the private studio

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of several accomplished[br]artists and studied with them.

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Steven: But the world was still[br]a restrictive one for her,

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even in Paris, and she[br]was not, for instance,

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able to spend time with her[br]friends like Degas at the cafes.

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We see that, actually,[br]reflected in her subject matter,

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which tends to be domestic,

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or perhaps a night out at the opera.

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Beth: It's difficult, I think,[br]to remember those restrictions

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for women when we look at this painting

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because there's an[br]extraordinary sense of freedom

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about the woman who's depicted here.

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She's leaning back on her right elbow.

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There's a strong diagonal[br]that has a sense of

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informality and movement,[br]real self-confidence

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Steven: The woman with a pearl necklace,

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perhaps Lydia seems so much[br]her own agent in the world,

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and it really does remind us[br]of the tensions that existed

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at the end of the 19th century,

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as women were really entering[br]into the public space.

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You know that the tension[br]between public and private

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is played out, not only in[br]terms of the subject matter,

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not only the fact that they're[br]in a kind of semi-private space

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within this booth in the public[br]space of the opera house,

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but also in the contrast[br]between light and shadow

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that plays across Lydia's body.

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Look at the way the light picks[br]up only the side of her face.

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The front of her face is in shadow.

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Not only is it rather[br]brave on Cassatt's part,

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but it also speaks to the[br]representation of bourgeois culture,

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this notion of privacy and its importance,

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even as one views the stage with others.

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Beth: Cassatt has so much in common

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with her impressionist colleagues[br]and is really picking up

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on some of the most advanced problems

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that they were confronting in their art,

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an interest in artificial[br]light, for example.

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The informality of loose[br]brushwork of an attempt to capture

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a moment in time.

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These are all concerns that were important

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to her impressionist colleagues.

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Steven: One of the areas[br]that I found most interesting

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is the place where her shoulders meet.

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The representation of her shoulders

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and the representation of the[br]reflection of her shoulders,

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and all of that comes together

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just at the top of the upholstered[br]chair that she sits on,

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and if you work out from that point,

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the arc of the balcony that[br]we see reflected in the mirror

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becomes a reference to her vision,

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as she looks out at the audience,

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even as it looks back to her.

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(piano music playing)