WEBVTT

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(piano music playing)

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

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they often talk about
a culture of display,

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and this is a painting
that is all about that.

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

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Woman with a Pearl Necklace in a Loge,

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and this is, perhaps,
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
private booths in the opera house.

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Steven: So the Paris opera house,

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situated at the intersection
of the Grand Boulevards,

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is a building which is
a kind of jewel itself,

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but that also puts its
occupants on display.

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In other words, the
stage of the opera house

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is not simply where
the ballet takes place,

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but the stage is also the audience.

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Beth: The architecture
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
fashionable elite of Paris,

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and we certainly feel
that we're looking at

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one of the members of that
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
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
back out towards the audience,

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and so we're seeing Lydia
the way that the audience

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

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She is this object of display
within this jewel box.

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

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where she must have been
as she looked at Lydia

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and painted her.

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Steven: So this is a painting
that really does show

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the opulence of imperial France.

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The moment that's being represented
is clearly intermission.

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The chandelier has been lowered
into the space of the audience.

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

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from the stage to themselves.

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

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actually her father refused
to support her desire

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to be an artist,

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and although he paid for
her basic living expenses,

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refused to support her art
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
impressionist painters in Paris.

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Beth: This painting displays
a virtuoso technique.

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Mary Cassatt gained her
knowledge of painting

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from a variety of sources,
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
to study from the nude,

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even from within the
context of art school.

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Beth: And like many
artists of her generation,

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they moved to Paris where there
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
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
artists and studied with them.

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

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even in Paris, and she
was not, for instance,

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

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We see that, actually,
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,
to remember those restrictions

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for women when we look at this painting

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because there's an
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
that has a sense of

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informality and movement,
real self-confidence

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Steven: The woman with a pearl necklace,

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

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and it really does remind us
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
into the public space.

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You know that the tension
between public and private

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

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

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within this booth in the public
space of the opera house,

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but also in the contrast
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
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
brave on Cassatt's part,

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but it also speaks to the
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
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
light, for example.

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The informality of loose
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
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
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
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
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)