Collection: Mary Cassatt The Choice of Independence

Musée d'Orsay

October 06th, 2026 to January 31st, 2027

In 2026, in order to mark the hundredth anniversary of the artist’s death, the Musée d’Orsay is organizing a major exhibition devoted to Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery in London and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. In France, this will be a long-awaited event: its national museums have never devoted a major exhibition to Mary Cassatt, an active member and pillar of the impressionist group. Her centenary provides an opportunity to examine the central place occupied by this prominent artist who, through talent and determination, succeed in forging a unique identity in late 19th- and early 20th-century art history, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Mary Cassatt described herself as “American, American through and through”, but started off by grounding her art in the pictorial tradition of the old masters, which she studied during her visits to Europe, before becoming an essential figure in the impressionist movement in France, where she lived for no fewer than six decades. “I am independent!” she proclaimed, “I can live alone and I love to work”. Taking a chrono-thematic approach, the exhibition paints a new portrait of the artist, examining her art through the prism of the notion of independence, in which she took great pride and which was her guiding principle throughout her life. 

Comprising almost 80 paintings, pastels and prints, and covering the whole of the artist’s career, “Mary Cassatt: Le choix de l’indépendance / Mary Cassatt: The Choice of Independence” opens up new perspectives on her work, drawing on unpublished letters and never before exploited sources. Rarely shown works from public and private European collections will be presented, along with paintings and pastels from American collections seldom exhibited outside the United States.