Focus on The Boating Party and analyze the Legacy.
Though the Boating Party was considered one of Cassatt’s largest and best works, Cassatt did not want to sell the painting because it held sentimental value for her. In 1914, Cassatt wrote “About the painting, La Barque, I do not want to sell it; I have already promised it to my family. It was done at Antibes 20 years ago—the year my niece came into the world." However, later in life, she would place the painting on the market for sale as she did not believe her family held the painting in the same esteem as she did.Art historian Frederick A. Sweet calls The Boating Party "One of the most ambitious paintings [Cassatt] ever attempted." According to Breeskin, no female painter has yet surpassed Mary Cassatt’s work. Cassatt’s unique artistic style in The Boating Party, which combined American and French Impressionism, Japanese woodblock painting styles, and her own innovations, would later become a well-known model from which many future female artists would learn.In 1966, the painting appeared on a US postage stamp.
Antibes Mary Cassatt