Editing Edgar Degas (section)

== Relationship with Mary Cassatt==
[[File:Mary Stevenson Cassatt.jpg|thumb|Edgar Degas, ''Mary Cassatt Seated, Holding Cards'', c. 1880–1884, oil on canvas, National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC (NPG.84.34)<ref name="auto2">{{cite web|url=https://npg.si.edu/portraits|title=The Portraits|date=21 August 2015|website=npg.si.edu|access-date=14 August 2019}}</ref>]]
In 1877, Degas invited [[Mary Cassatt]] to exhibit in the third Impressionist exhibition.<ref>''Mary Cassatt: an American Observer: a loan exhibition for the benefit of the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oct. 3–27, 1984''. 1984. New York, N.Y.: Coe Kerr Gallery. {{OCLC|744493160}}</ref> He had admired a portrait (''Ida'') she exhibited in the Salon of 1874, and the two formed a friendship. They had much in common: they shared similar tastes in art and literature, came from affluent backgrounds, had studied painting in Italy, and both were independent, never marrying. Both regarded themselves as figure painters, and the art historian George Shackelford suggests they were influenced by the art critic [[Louis Edmond Duranty]]'s appeal in his pamphlet ''The New Painting'' for a revitalization in figure painting: "Let us take leave of the stylized human body, which is treated like a vase. What we need is the characteristic modern person in his clothes, in the midst of his social surroundings, at home or out in the street."{{sfn|Duranty|1876}}<ref>{{Google books|AcdBAQAAQBAJ |title=MoMA Highlights: 350 Works from The Museum of Modern Art, New York |page=31}}</ref>

[[File:Mary Stevenson Cassatt - Mary Cassatt Self-Portrait - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|Mary Cassatt, ''Self-Portrait'', c. 1880, gouache and watercolor over graphite on paper, [[National Portrait Gallery (United States)|National Portrait Gallery]], Washington DC (NPG.76.33)<ref name="auto2"/>]]
After Cassatt's parents and sister Lydia joined Cassatt in Paris in 1877, Degas, Cassatt, and Lydia were often to be seen at the Louvre studying artworks together. Degas produced two prints, notable for their technical innovation, depicting Cassatt at the Louvre looking at artworks while Lydia reads a guidebook. These were destined for a prints journal planned by Degas (together with [[Camille Pissarro]] and others), which never came to fruition. Cassatt frequently posed for Degas, notably for his millinery series trying on hats.<ref>Gordon and Forge 1988, pp. 110–112</ref>

Degas introduced Cassatt to pastel and engraving, while for her part Cassatt was instrumental in helping Degas sell his paintings and promoting his reputation in the United States.{{sfn|Bullard|p=14}} Cassatt and Degas worked most closely together in the fall and winter of 1879–80 when Cassatt was mastering her printmaking technique. Degas owned a small [[printing press]], and by day she worked at his studio using his tools and press. However, in April 1880, Degas abruptly withdrew from the prints journal they had been collaborating on, and without his support the project folded. Although they continued to visit each other until Degas' death in 1917,{{sfn|Mathews|pp= 312–13}} she never again worked with him as closely as she had over the prints journal.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

Around 1884, Degas made a portrait in oils of Cassatt, ''Mary Cassatt Seated, Holding Cards''. Stephanie Strasnick suggests that the cards are probably ''[[Carte de visite|cartes de visite]]'', used by artists and dealers at the time to document their work.<ref name="Strasnick">{{cite web|last=Strasnick |first=Stephanie |title=Degas and Cassatt: The Untold Story of Their Artistic Friendship |url=http://www.artnews.com/2014/03/27/national-gallery-show-explores-artistic-friendship-of-degas-and-cassatt/ |publisher=[[ARTnews]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140327165838/http://www.artnews.com/2014/03/27/national-gallery-show-explores-artistic-friendship-of-degas-and-cassatt/ |archive-date=27 March 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Cassatt thought it represented her as "a repugnant person" and later sold it, writing to her dealer [[Paul Durand-Ruel]] in 1912 or 1913 that "I would not want it known that I posed for it."<ref>Baumann, et al. 1994, p. 270</ref>

Degas was forthright in his views, as was Cassatt.{{sfn|Mathews| p= 149}} They clashed over the [[Dreyfus affair]].{{efn | Pro-Dreyfus included Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Paul Signac and Mary Cassatt. Anti-Dreyfus included Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Auguste Rodin and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.<ref>{{cite news|last=Meiseler |first=Stanley |title=History's new verdict on the Dreyfus case |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-jul-09-op-meisler9-story.html |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140109164907/http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jul/09/opinion/op-meisler9 |archive-date=9 January 2014 |date=9 July 2006 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}{{sfn|Mathews| p= 275}}{{sfn|Shackelford| p= 137}} Cassatt later expressed satisfaction at the irony of Lousine Havermeyer's 1915 joint exhibition of hers and Degas' work being held in aid of [[women's suffrage]], equally capable of affectionately repeating Degas' antifemale comments as being estranged by them (when viewing her ''[[Two Women Picking Fruit]]'' for the first time, he had commented "No woman has the right to draw like that").{{sfn|Mathews|pp= 303, 308}}