Mary Cassatt

"O how wild I am to get to work, my fingers farely itch & my eyes water to see a fine picture again."

"I have given up my studio & torn up my father's portrait, & have not touched a brush for six weeks nor ever will again until I see some prospect of getting back to Europe. I am very anxious to go out west next fall & get some employment, but I have not yet decided where."

"I used to go and flatten my nose against that window and absorb all I could of his [Degas'] art. It changed my life. I saw art then as I wanted to see it."

"..we [the Impressionists ] are carrying on a despairing fight & need all our forces."

"If you [[w:Ambroise Vollard|[Vollard] ]] should ever happen to find that picture ['Milliners's workshop'] by Edgar Degas I know an American who will pay any price for it."

"..crushed by the strength of this Art [the old Egyptian art].. .I fought against it but it conquered, it is surely the greatest Art the past has left us.. ..how are my feeble hands to ever paint the effect on me."

"..Mary Cassatt, sister of Mr. Cassatt, President of the Pennsylvania Railroad, who has been studying painting in France and owns the smallest Pekingese dog in the world."

"this fantastic work called Young Mother Sewing by Mary Cassatt."

"It is absolutely necessary, while what I saw yesterday at Miss Cassatt's is still fresh in mind, to tell you [Lucien, his son] about the colored engravings she is to show at Durand-Ruel's at the same time as I. We open Saturday.. .You remember the effects you strove for at Eragny? Well, Miss Cassatt has realized just such effects, and admirably: the tone even, subtle, delicate, without stains on seams: adorable blues, fresh rose, etc."

"M. Degas and Mlle. Cassatt are, nevertheless, the only artists who distinguish themselves.. ..and who offer some attraction and some excuse in the pretentious show of window dressing and infantile daubing."

"She [Mary Cassatt] has infinite talent. I remember the time we started a little magazine called 'Le Jour et La Nuit' together. I was very much interested in processes then, and had made countless experiments [in printing; Degas mainly mono-type - Mary Cassatt mainly etchings].. .You can get extraordinary results with copper; but the trouble is that there are never enough buyers to encourage you to go on with it."