 Henry Bacon, a friend of the Cassatts, thought that the Impressionists were so radical that they were "afflicted with some hitherto unknown disease of the eye".They already had one female member, artist Berthe Morisot, who became Cassatt's friend and colleague.Cassatt admired Degas, whose pastels had made a powerful impression on her when she encountered them in an art dealer's window in 1875.