1
00:00:00,181 --> 00:00:05,851
(piano music playing)

2
00:00:05,851 --> 00:00:09,017
Steven: When historians talk
about late 19th-century Paris,

3
00:00:09,017 --> 00:00:11,506
they often talk about
a culture of display,

4
00:00:11,506 --> 00:00:14,398
and this is a painting
that is all about that.

5
00:00:14,398 --> 00:00:16,601
Beth: We're looking at
Mary Cassatt's painting,

6
00:00:16,601 --> 00:00:19,023
Woman with a Pearl Necklace in a Loge,

7
00:00:19,023 --> 00:00:21,582
and this is, perhaps,
Mary Cassatt's sister

8
00:00:21,582 --> 00:00:23,977
pictured in the Paris opera house.

9
00:00:23,977 --> 00:00:26,433
She's sitting in a private booth,

10
00:00:26,433 --> 00:00:28,439
and we can see behind her a mirror,

11
00:00:28,439 --> 00:00:32,281
which reflects all the other
private booths in the opera house.

12
00:00:32,281 --> 00:00:33,638
Steven: So the Paris opera house,

13
00:00:33,638 --> 00:00:36,389
situated at the intersection
of the Grand Boulevards,

14
00:00:36,389 --> 00:00:39,081
is a building which is
a kind of jewel itself,

15
00:00:39,081 --> 00:00:41,632
but that also puts its
occupants on display.

16
00:00:41,632 --> 00:00:43,554
In other words, the
stage of the opera house

17
00:00:43,554 --> 00:00:45,888
is not simply where
the ballet takes place,

18
00:00:45,888 --> 00:00:48,833
but the stage is also the audience.

19
00:00:48,833 --> 00:00:51,632
Beth: The architecture
of the Paris opera house

20
00:00:51,632 --> 00:00:54,514
enabled seeing and being seen,

21
00:00:54,514 --> 00:00:56,963
and afforded numerous opportunities

22
00:00:56,963 --> 00:00:58,917
in small, little balconies and spaces

23
00:00:58,917 --> 00:01:03,087
where one could glimpse the
fashionable elite of Paris,

24
00:01:03,087 --> 00:01:05,417
and we certainly feel
that we're looking at

25
00:01:05,417 --> 00:01:08,364
one of the members of that
elite in this painting

26
00:01:08,364 --> 00:01:09,337
by Mary Cassatt.

27
00:01:09,337 --> 00:01:10,526
Steven: What you said is exactly right.

28
00:01:10,526 --> 00:01:11,625
Look at the composition.

29
00:01:11,625 --> 00:01:13,336
Mary Cassatt must have been
turned away from the stage

30
00:01:13,336 --> 00:01:15,922
looking into the box towards her sister,

31
00:01:15,922 --> 00:01:20,359
and Lydia is, in turn, looking
back out towards the audience,

32
00:01:20,359 --> 00:01:23,221
and so we're seeing Lydia
the way that the audience

33
00:01:23,221 --> 00:01:25,832
would have seen her, had
they glanced into this box.

34
00:01:25,832 --> 00:01:29,671
She is this object of display
within this jewel box.

35
00:01:29,671 --> 00:01:33,014
Beth: But Cassatt doesn't paint
herself reflected in the mirror,

36
00:01:33,014 --> 00:01:35,459
where she must have been
as she looked at Lydia

37
00:01:35,459 --> 00:01:36,423
and painted her.

38
00:01:36,423 --> 00:01:38,170
Steven: So this is a painting
that really does show

39
00:01:38,170 --> 00:01:40,625
the opulence of imperial France.

40
00:01:40,625 --> 00:01:43,375
The moment that's being represented
is clearly intermission.

41
00:01:43,375 --> 00:01:45,995
The chandelier has been lowered
into the space of the audience.

42
00:01:45,995 --> 00:01:49,620
The lights are up, and so the
audience's gaze has shifted

43
00:01:49,620 --> 00:01:52,201
from the stage to themselves.

44
00:01:52,201 --> 00:01:55,261
Beth: So Cassatt's family,
although it was very wealthy,

45
00:01:55,261 --> 00:01:57,958
actually her father refused
to support her desire

46
00:01:57,958 --> 00:01:59,351
to be an artist,

47
00:01:59,351 --> 00:02:01,529
and although he paid for
her basic living expenses,

48
00:02:01,529 --> 00:02:04,596
refused to support her art
supplies and her studio

49
00:02:04,596 --> 00:02:05,475
where she painted.

50
00:02:05,475 --> 00:02:07,181
Steven: This, despite real support from

51
00:02:07,181 --> 00:02:08,419
the leading artists of the day.

52
00:02:08,419 --> 00:02:09,857
She was a close friend of Degas,

53
00:02:09,857 --> 00:02:11,996
who had enormous respect for her ability,

54
00:02:11,996 --> 00:02:13,727
and she was an extraordinary painter,

55
00:02:13,727 --> 00:02:17,456
in every way a peer of the great
impressionist painters in Paris.

56
00:02:17,456 --> 00:02:21,105
Beth: This painting displays
a virtuoso technique.

57
00:02:21,105 --> 00:02:23,398
Mary Cassatt gained her
knowledge of painting

58
00:02:23,398 --> 00:02:25,651
from a variety of sources,
but it was difficult

59
00:02:25,651 --> 00:02:26,757
because she was a woman.

60
00:02:26,757 --> 00:02:28,106
Steven: Her first formal classes were at

61
00:02:28,106 --> 00:02:29,532
the Pennsylvania Academy of Art,

62
00:02:29,532 --> 00:02:32,353
but women were not allowed
to study from the nude,

63
00:02:32,353 --> 00:02:34,438
even from within the
context of art school.

64
00:02:34,438 --> 00:02:36,854
Beth: And like many
artists of her generation,

65
00:02:36,854 --> 00:02:39,851
they moved to Paris where there
was a little bit more freedom

66
00:02:39,851 --> 00:02:42,181
for women who were aspiring artists.

67
00:02:42,181 --> 00:02:44,795
Although she couldn't enter
the Ăcole des Beaux-Arts

68
00:02:44,795 --> 00:02:45,638
because she was a woman,

69
00:02:45,638 --> 00:02:47,979
she did enter the private studio

70
00:02:47,979 --> 00:02:51,608
of several accomplished
artists and studied with them.

71
00:02:51,608 --> 00:02:53,613
Steven: But the world was still
a restrictive one for her,

72
00:02:53,613 --> 00:02:55,612
even in Paris, and she
was not, for instance,

73
00:02:55,612 --> 00:02:59,727
able to spend time with her
friends like Degas at the cafes.

74
00:02:59,727 --> 00:03:02,100
We see that, actually,
reflected in her subject matter,

75
00:03:02,100 --> 00:03:03,628
which tends to be domestic,

76
00:03:03,628 --> 00:03:05,863
or perhaps a night out at the opera.

77
00:03:05,863 --> 00:03:08,472
Beth: It's difficult, I think,
to remember those restrictions

78
00:03:08,472 --> 00:03:09,964
for women when we look at this painting

79
00:03:09,964 --> 00:03:12,271
because there's an
extraordinary sense of freedom

80
00:03:12,271 --> 00:03:14,681
about the woman who's depicted here.

81
00:03:14,681 --> 00:03:17,961
She's leaning back on her right elbow.

82
00:03:17,961 --> 00:03:20,689
There's a strong diagonal
that has a sense of

83
00:03:20,689 --> 00:03:24,826
informality and movement,
real self-confidence

84
00:03:24,826 --> 00:03:26,504
Steven: The woman with a pearl necklace,

85
00:03:26,504 --> 00:03:29,806
perhaps Lydia seems so much
her own agent in the world,

86
00:03:29,806 --> 00:03:33,166
and it really does remind us
of the tensions that existed

87
00:03:33,166 --> 00:03:34,873
at the end of the 19th century,

88
00:03:34,873 --> 00:03:37,197
as women were really entering
into the public space.

89
00:03:37,197 --> 00:03:39,553
You know that the tension
between public and private

90
00:03:39,553 --> 00:03:41,773
is played out, not only in
terms of the subject matter,

91
00:03:41,773 --> 00:03:45,051
not only the fact that they're
in a kind of semi-private space

92
00:03:45,051 --> 00:03:47,708
within this booth in the public
space of the opera house,

93
00:03:47,708 --> 00:03:50,866
but also in the contrast
between light and shadow

94
00:03:50,866 --> 00:03:52,433
that plays across Lydia's body.

95
00:03:52,433 --> 00:03:55,370
Look at the way the light picks
up only the side of her face.

96
00:03:55,370 --> 00:03:56,933
The front of her face is in shadow.

97
00:03:56,933 --> 00:03:59,433
Not only is it rather
brave on Cassatt's part,

98
00:03:59,433 --> 00:04:02,961
but it also speaks to the
representation of bourgeois culture,

99
00:04:02,961 --> 00:04:05,410
this notion of privacy and its importance,

100
00:04:05,410 --> 00:04:08,068
even as one views the stage with others.

101
00:04:08,068 --> 00:04:09,460
Beth: Cassatt has so much in common

102
00:04:09,460 --> 00:04:12,504
with her impressionist colleagues
and is really picking up

103
00:04:12,504 --> 00:04:14,868
on some of the most advanced problems

104
00:04:14,868 --> 00:04:16,700
that they were confronting in their art,

105
00:04:16,700 --> 00:04:20,113
an interest in artificial
light, for example.

106
00:04:20,113 --> 00:04:24,281
The informality of loose
brushwork of an attempt to capture

107
00:04:24,281 --> 00:04:26,171
a moment in time.

108
00:04:26,171 --> 00:04:27,975
These are all concerns that were important

109
00:04:27,975 --> 00:04:30,285
to her impressionist colleagues.

110
00:04:30,285 --> 00:04:31,912
Steven: One of the areas
that I found most interesting

111
00:04:31,912 --> 00:04:34,667
is the place where her shoulders meet.

112
00:04:34,667 --> 00:04:36,494
The representation of her shoulders

113
00:04:36,494 --> 00:04:39,963
and the representation of the
reflection of her shoulders,

114
00:04:39,963 --> 00:04:41,901
and all of that comes together

115
00:04:41,901 --> 00:04:44,923
just at the top of the upholstered
chair that she sits on,

116
00:04:44,923 --> 00:04:47,169
and if you work out from that point,

117
00:04:47,169 --> 00:04:51,340
the arc of the balcony that
we see reflected in the mirror

118
00:04:51,340 --> 00:04:54,215
becomes a reference to her vision,

119
00:04:54,215 --> 00:04:56,085
as she looks out at the audience,

120
00:04:56,085 --> 00:04:58,506
even as it looks back to her.

121
00:04:58,506 --> 00:05:02,211
(piano music playing)