Gender Role - Cassatt versus Eakins

When comparing the works of Cassat and Eakins, it is inevitable to talk about gender roles. Both artists have a few things in common in their background. They were born in the same year (1844) and they’re both from Pennsylvania and attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and then later both studied in Europe.

Both artists have a couple of things in common when comparing their works, both Cassat and Eakins reject the notion that the portrait of a woman should be flattering in order to be successful. They refuse to idealize their female sitters. On the other hand, there are many differences among both artists. First of all, they have different genders. However, this gender role should not be interpreted as simply inborn qualities of masculinity and femininity. It must be envisioned as social and historical conditions. It’s easy to discern gender difference in a simple opposition in iconography. Eakins’ Swimming Hole depicts young men and boys swimming naked outdoors while Cassat’s Five O’clock Tea depicts ladies drinking tea in an elegant parlor.

In Swimming Hole, Eakins was constructing an image of an American hero and his democratic freedom. He used nature and nudity to depict freedom. Eakins, a more traditional painter, uses three dimensionality, with a vanishing point drawing our eye to the horizon. In Five O'clock Tea, Cassatt depicts ladies having their moment, away from the men's gaze. As opposed to Eakins, Cassatt erases space in Five O'clock Tea. She is anti-depth. 

At a time when men were known to have the ''power of gaze,'' Cassatt tried to depict an all active  modern woman having the "power of the gaze" in Woman in Black at the Opera. Cassatt gives her energy and control. There's a guy in the back that is possibly gazing at her but she's not even aware because she is very focused having her gaze at the opera. This could even be a self-portrait of Cassatt herself.


     Even though Eakins also tried to represent heroines of Modern life, they are depicted as having less power and being less active than Cassatt's heroines. Even though Eakins' females are active, as in his The Concert Singer, they are just part of the scenario. The man's hand on the left bottom of the painting still depicts men as having more power and control over the woman. The man is still the leader.


Eisenman, Stephen F., Nineteenth Century Art - A Critical History. Fourth Edition. 



http://www.moma.org/search?&page=1&query=mary+cassatt

MARY CASSATT AND THOMAS EAKINS IN GENDER ROLES

     The late 19th Century was an interesting time for the Art World in Europe. There were a number of different movements happening at the time such as Impressionism, Expressionism, and other isms. Retrospectively the participation of women artist seem minimal in comparison to to that of their male counterparts. Issues of gender and gender roles played a big part in this. I will examine two artists, a male and a female, and how they represented gender and gender roles in their artwork.

Mary Cassatt. Five O' Clock Tea. 1880

     The artists I will examine are Thomas Eakins (July 25th, 1844-June 25th, 1916) and Mary Cassatt (May 22, 1844-June 14th, 1926). Eakins painted the human figure in various poses or doing various activities. Mary Cassatt did the same thing. The difference lies in the way they are represented. Eakins painted male nudes sometimes involved in leisurely activities or playing sports. Cassatt on the other hand painted women, sometimes friends or relatives, involved in activities that women at that time enjoyed. Most of these activities involved motherhood or simply doing simple things like conversing with friends or drinking tea. The question is; why this contrast?
   
     Why are Cassatt's models drinking tea or playing with babies while Eakins' are either playing sports or hanging out naked? Male artists at the time and in times prior painted females either nude or in the company of a man with the man as the central figure. The female nudes were often painted with the "male gaze" in mind. Cassatt's art changed that. She represented women, fully clothes and not paying any attention to the viewer. The women were mostly mothers with children and if it were a self portrait the women were presented as powerful and strong. Eakins did something strikingly different in his treatment of some of his subjects.

Thomas Eakins. The Wrestlers.

     Eakins often painted men and women naked. Sometimes the women were looking at the audience in anticipation of the male gaze but the men were doing what Cassatt's models were doing; not paying attention to the audience! Eakins' models were either wrestling or involved in some sport activity. Now comes the issues of gender roles.

Mary Cassatt. A Woman and Child in The Driving Seat. 1881

     While Eakins painted his male figures at rest or in leisure and some of his female figures satisfying the male gaze, Cassatt painted hers enjoying life and at leisure with their clothes on. The roles of both the male and female genders were set at the time. The thinking of the time was that women belonged in the house tending to children and doing house work. Cassatt often painted women doing those things and other things as well. She has paintings of women playing musical instruments and driving horse and buggies with their children. Her intended audience weren't all male but females as well. Gender roles would not be restricted to simply being some sort of house keeper. This was the key difference between the two artists, the way the subject was presented.

Thomas Eakins. Arcadia. 

     The next difference is the style in which these two artists painted. While Eakins painted in the traditional style with classical canons of proportion using scientific perspective, direct lighting and what not, Cassatt destroyed all of this as if to say she was destroying the paradigms of restriction. She became a prominent member of the impressionist movement and lived life without too much restriction. Eakins on the other hand lived by set rules that didn't make him much different from any other person of the day.

     To conclude what I am saying I say that Cassatt broke through the fallacy of gender roles and poked the male gaze in the eye with her painting and style. Eakins on the other hand represented the perpetuation of these societal ideas in art. While Cassatt enjoyed her freedom in Paris, Eakins returned back to his comfort zone in America and died alone.

Cassatt vs Eakins Gender Roles in Impressionism

Mary Cassatt and Thomas Eakins were American painters that migrated from the United States and moved to Paris.  Both were Impressionist painters who were influenced by gender roles and depicting specific moments on to the canvas.  Both Cassatt and Eakins were focused on capturing moments of time, movement, a visual representation of their experience, with the use of the brushstroke as quickly painted canvases.

Cassatt began studying painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts at the age of fifteen.   She grew impatient with the method of teaching and felt that the men had a patronizing attitude towards teaching and art making.  Despite her father’s objections she moved to Paris in 1866 where she became part of the Impressionists.  She also studied with artist Thomas Couture who portrayed mostly romantic and urban scenes.  The Parisian art scene was going through changes where artists soon began to veer away from the accepted Academic tradition of painting.

Mary Cassatt’s Woman in Black at the Opera, 1880 is Cassatt’s signature stamp on her views of the importance of the feminine role in art.  Not only does she crop the image into a strikingly interesting composition where the foreground is flooded with the dark black dress of the woman’s attire, the light of the canvas is portrayed in the background which points to a man who is gazing at the woman in black.  In this depiction, Cassatt is able to make a commentary that the female gaze is not only as important but perhaps even more important than the male gaze.  No longer is the female the subject of men’s interest but the very figure which directs and controls what is being looked at.  Prior to this moment women were mostly portrayed as nude figures or objects that are placed on the picture plane for the male viewer.  Cassatt decides to incorporate her feminist rendition of what painting should be in a group filled with dominant male painters.  

In her painting, Cassatt shows a woman hunched in a a masculine form, fiercely independent sitting alone in a lodge, and attending the opera alone which was taboo in this particular time.  She is isolated and defiantly does not invite anyone to join her because she is intellectually absorbed in the act of observing.

                                          Mary Cassatt Woman in Black at the Opera, 1880

Thomas Eakins, also a native of Pennsylvania studied drawing and anatomy at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.  He also attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and took on to the Impressionist movement.  His work differed from Cassatt in that his dominant theme was comprised of a focus on the male model.  There is some speculation about Eakins’ sexual preferences but I will remove that from this observation. 

           

In Max Schmitt in a Single Scull, 1871, America’s economic and cultural transition into modernity is best portrayed.  Here Eakins highlights the celebration of champion oarsman Max Schmitt a personal friend of Eakins.  Eakins depicts himself in the distant boat in the background rowing away from Schmitt.  Eakins depicts a specific moment, representing what he saw as an artist and uses light being captured.

                                                       Male Gender Roles

Eisenman, Stephen M. Nineteenth Century Art: A Critical History. 4th ed. New York, NY: Thames & Hudson, 2011. Print.

Study Guide – Quiz 1

Development of Modern Art Fall 2012

Tuesdays + Thursdays 1:00pm - 2:20pm Bradley Hall 312

Department of Arts, Culture and Media – Rutgers University

 

Study Guide – Quiz 1

Neoclassicism

Jacques-Louis David, Belisarius Begging Alms, 1781
Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii, 1785
Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Socrates, 1787
Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Tennis Court, 1791
Jacques-Louis David, Death of Marat, 1793
Jacques-Louis David, Napoleon at the Saint-Bernard Pass, 1800
Jean-Auguste Ingres, Napoleon on his Imperial Throne, 1806
Jean-Auguste Ingres, Apotheosis of Homer, 1827
Jean-Auguste Ingres, Grand Odalisque, 1814
Antonio Canova, Perseus Carrying the Head of Medusa, 1804-8.
Antonio Canova, Pauline Bourghese as Venus, 1808

Romanticism

Théodore Géricault, The Charging Light Calvaryman, 1812
Théodore Géricault, The Raft of the Medusa, 1818-9
Eugène Delacroix, The Death of Sardanapalus, 1827
Eugène Delacroix, The Massacre at Chios, 1824
Eugène Delacroix, The 28th of July- Liberty Leading the People, 1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Slave Ship, 1840
John Constable, The Hay Wain (Landscape- Noon), 1821
John Constable, Hadleigh Castle, 1829

Goya
Francisco de Goya, Family of Charles IV, 1800
Francisco de Goya, Second of May, 1808, 1814
Francisco de Goya, Third of May, 1808, 1814
Francisco de Goya, The sleep of reason produces monsters, 1797-8
Francisco de Goya, Pilgrimage to San Isidro, 1820-3
Francisco de Goya, Saturn Devouring his Son, 1819-23

American Art 1770-1865
John Vanderlyn, The Death of Jane McCrea, 1804
Casper David Friedrich, The Abbey in the Oakwood, 1809-10
Casper David Friedrich, Monk by the Sea, 1809
Thomas Cole, Kaaterskill Falls, 1826, detail
Thomas Cole, Course of the Empire- The Pastoral or Arcadian State, 1834
Thomas Cole, Course of Empire- Consumation, 1835-6
Thomas Cole, Course of the Empire- Desolation, 1836
Thomas Cole, View from Mount Holyoke, The Oxbow, 1836
Asher Brown Durand, Progress (The Advance of Civilization), 1853
Frederic Edwin Church, Cotopaxi, 1862
Harriet Hosmer, Zenobia in Chains, 1859
Edmonia Lewis, Hagar in the Wilderness, 1868
Edmonia Lewis, Forever Free, 1867
Edmonia Lewis, Old Indian Arrowmaker and His Daughters, 1872

Realism
Jean-François Millet, The Sower, 1850
Jean-François Millet, The Gleaners, 1857
Rosa Bonheur, Plowing the Ninervais, 1849
Rosa Bonheur, The Horse Fair, 1853-5
Honoré Daumier, Rue Transnonian, April 15, 1834, 1834
Honoré Daumier, The Third Class Carriage, c. 1860-2
Gustave Courbet, The Meeting, 1854
Gustave Courbet, Peasants of Flagey Returning from the Fair, 1849
Gustave Courbet, The Stonebreakers, 1849
Gustave Courbet, Interior of My Studio, a Real Allegory Summing Up Seven Years of My Life as an Artist, 1854-5

Impressionism
Edouard Manet, Déjeuner Sur L’Herbe, 1863
Edouard Manet, Olympia, 1863
*Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538

Edouard Manet, A Balcony, 1868-69

Claude Monet, Women in the Garden, 1866-7
Claude Monet, Impression Sunrise, 1872
Claude Monet, Gare St-Lazare, 1877

Berthe Morisot, Psyche, 1876

American Painters and Gender - Realism and Impressionism

Mary Cassat, Five O'Clock Tea, 1880

Mary Cassat, The Boating Party, 1893-4

Mary Cassat, Woman in Black at the Opera, 1880

Post Impressionism

George Seurat, A Bathing Place, Asnieres, 1883-4
George Seurat, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte, 1884-6
George Seurat, Invitation to the Sideshow (La Parade), 1887-8
Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Moulin Rouge, 1892-5
George Seurat, La Chahut, 1889-90
George Seurat, The Circus, 1890-1
Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Circus, Fernando, the Ring Master, 1888

ADDED on 10/25
Post Impressionism (con't)

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Ambassadeurs, Artistide Bruante, 1892

Vincent Van Gogh, The Artist's Bedroom in Arles, 1888
George Seurat, Woman Powdering Herself, 1889-90 
Vincent Van Gogh, La Berceuse, 1889
Vincent Van Gogh, The Potato Eaters, 1885
**from Realism - Gustave Courbet, After Dinner at Ornans, 1849 
Vincent Van Gogh, Sower, 1888

Symbolism
Vincent Van Gogh, Crows in a Wheatfield, 1890
Paul Gauguin, Yellow Christ, 1889
Paul Gauguin, The Meal, 1891
Paul Gauguin, The Seaweed Gatherers, 1889
Paul Gauguin, Where do we come from? Where are we? Where are we going?, 1897
James Ensor, Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1889, 1888
Odilon Redon, The Cyclops, 1905
Odilon Redon, Smiling Spider, 1881
Gustav Klimt, The Kiss, 1907-8

Edvard Munch, The Voice, 1893
Edvard Munch, Madonna, 1893

Audreya Jackson's Post 2

Late nineteenth century artists Mary Cassatt and Thomas Eakins are both from Pennsylvania and were born in 1844.  Cassatt and Eakins both studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts as teenagers, and later became the first two American artists to study under the French artist and instructor Jean-Leon Gerome in Paris during the 1860’s to 1870.  Both artists were also dedicated painters of the portraiture of human subjects, but their artworks tell a story of two artists who took separate paths in issues dealing with art and gender.

Mary Cassatt experienced issues with gender early in her childhood when her father protested her becoming an artist.  Although she was allowed to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, she suffered opposition from her male classmates and instructors who did not want to teach her art skills.  Eventually, that opposition forced her to study on her own the skills of the Old Master Artists of the 1800’s, and she learned how to do engravings, etchings and drawings.  Later, Mary Cassatt applied to art schools in Europe, but could not get in because she was a female, so she independently studied under the French artist and instructor Jean-Leon Gerome. 

However, artist Thomas Eakins did not suffer the opposition in learning art as Cassatt had experienced.  Despite, the fact that Cassatt is from a high-middle class family and Eakins was not, Eakins was given the opportunity to learn art at Pennsylvania Academy and the French art school Ecole des Beaux-Arts because he was of male gender.  Eakins was also Jean-Leon Gerome’s second American art student and he and Cassatt studied under the French instructor together.  Later, Eakins was able to return to America and teach at Pennsylvania Academy’s newly built Frank Furness (an American architect from the Victorian era in Philadelphia) designed building.  When Cassatt returned to America to find economic success as an artist, people with money would view her art with fascination, but would not purchase it.  Unlike economically successful Eakins, Cassatt could not establish an art career in America.  Instead, she was commissioned by an Archbishop from Pittsburgh to travel back to Europe, and paint copies of two artworks by artists Corregio in Parma, Italy.  It was in Italy where Cassatt’s artwork gained her recognition, fame, money and a career as an artist.  Although Cassatt, due to her being a female, did not have as many opportunity options availed to her as Eakins, she was still able to manifest her dream of having a career as an artist.  Cassat decided to reside in Europe and Eakins decided to reside in America.

Eakins and Cassatt were famous painters of the 19^th Century, but they both possessed their own painting styles of the human figure.  Cassatt chose to paint the female gender and show how a woman existed in a natural yet social and private way.  It would be safe to say that due to the silent discrimination and misrepresentation woman suffered during Cassatt’s time (herself included) she felt it was imperative to use her art talent and skills to display how woman experienced everyday life in their domestic habitat from a woman’s perspective.  Eakins preferred to paint his subjects in the nude, and although he found the female subject beautiful, he believed the female and her qualities were inferior to men, and the female was an inactive passive object.  As one can see, both Cassat and Eakins focused on the construction of gender as theme in their compositions, but from different perspectives. 

Cassatt chose to paint a lot of her female subjects with children to highlight the one of the most important elements of womanhood, being a mother and the existence of children in relation to the mother.  To capture a woman in the moment as they were in the artist’s eye, Cassatt used small, thin but visible brushstrokes, used unusual visual angles, open composition and more light and less chiaroscuro to show subjects performing in the passage of time.  Her method of painting also captured the soft and delicate element that exists in the feminine world.  Cassatt’s paintings display the techniques used by the Impressionists during the Impressionists art movement in Paris because she was a member.  However, although Thomas Eakins attended Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, a school of the Impressionist Art Movement, he took no interest in Impressionism.  Instead, Eatkins chose to practice the Classical methods modeling and solid anatomical form in his paintings; therefore, Eakins paintings posses a masculine quality and sturdiness that does not exist in Cassatt’s paintings.  Although it is clear that both artists are painting human subjects, Eakins focuses on making sure the human proportions and perspectives are accurate but Cassatt does not.  For instance in Cassat’s Self Portrait and Eakins Self Portrait are different because Cassatt’s Self Portrait has vivid colors, small, thin brushstrokes and her body is situated in an unusual twisted position at the waistline, due to the lack of display of musculature under her clothing, and she is not appealing to her spectator or male audience with a gaze (displaying autonomy of the woman).  However, Eakins Self Portrait displays a man gazing with a serious and affirming look of authority toward his spectators (a hint at male dominance and control), and his painting is in black and white to display a masculine quality.  Still, regardless of how Cassatt and Eakins are similar or different in their approaches as artists, they are both outstanding and popular artists of their time, and today.

Mary Cassatt and Thomas Eakins "Self Portrait" and info taken from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Cassatt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Eakins

and textbook: Eisenman, Stephen. Nineteenth Century Art A Critical History.  4th Ed. Thames & Hudson, New York.  2011.

Post 2 Gender Grudge Match

Mary Cassatt and Thomas Eakins were American artists both born in Philadelphia during the mid nineteenth century.  Cassatt and Eakins also both studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and eventually in Europe.  Mary Cassatt settled in France and joined the Impressionist movement while Thomas Eakins stayed in the United States and was a realist painter. As evidenced in previous statements Cassatt and Eakins were similar in upbringing and education.  However the way subjects were portrayed in their work was a reflection of their experiences as different genders.

Mary Cassatt portrayed female figures as independent people and were the central focus of her work.  Conversely Thomas Eakins, portrayed women as little more than objects in his work, he objectified women if you will, and did not emphasize them. So in essence Cassatt focused on the importance of women, while Eakins demeaned their capabilities and roles in society.

Mary Cassatt’s Woman in Black at the Opera (1880) is an excellent example of her work in which a woman is the main focus. The woman’s importance in this painting is symbolically portrayed through her active gestures, and look of sternness in her face. She is without a doubt the focus of the painting. One gets a sense of assertiveness from her, a feeling that she is definitely in control of her surroundings.

Thomas Eakins’ The Concert Singer (Weda Cook), 1892), exemplifies the insignificance he gave  to women in his works. The woman in this painting is not shown as a very active and therefore not important. While the figure is portrayed as actively performing, she has a lost faraway look in her face takes the power away from her. The delicateness and suppleness of the figure reflects a loss of control, and demeans her strength. Eakins gives more importance to her singing, and performance, over the singer herself.

In essence, Cassett portrayed women as awesome independent figures that didn't need men to be productive members in society. Meanwhile Eakins didn't really portray women particularly well and just used them as objects like his misogynist predecessors.

tangentially related link: http://thisismaleprivilege.tumblr.com/

Impressionism, Realism, and Gender Roles as Expressed by Mary Cassatt and Thomas Eakins

Claude Monet Impression Sunrise, 1872 

         Throughout history, new ideas have either been praised as advancements of society, or scorned as defects emanating from radical minds.  The late 19th century saw an emergence of a new style of painting in France.  Artists utilizing this radical style were called "Impressionists," a name derived from Claude Monet's work Impression Sunrise.  Mary Cassatt, a native from Pennsylvania, was one such artist who was influenced by this style of painting.  Her contemporary and fellow American Thomas Eakins, however, painted in a more realistic style.  This essay will discuss the two art styles and how the aforementioned artists' paintings were representative of these movements.  The issue of gender roles in art will also be discussed using Cassatt and Eakins'
works as examples.
Impressionism was a movement defined by an emphasis on brush stroke,
depiction of light and color en plein air, and a rejection of chiaroscuro
(Eisenman 359).  Artists who painted in this style had a small following but
were mainly scorned by the more prominent art community and critics. Their
paintings were mocked as simple, unfinished sketches.  It wasn't until the late
19th century that Impressionist works became more commonplace and accepted as an
art form.
Realism was another movement prominent during the 19th century.  This
style was defined by an objective, third person view of people and events.  It
rejected the overly dramatic and stylized depictions found in Classical and
Romantic works.  The differences in styles between Realism and Impressionism can
be explained through an analysis of the works of Cassatt and Eakins.

Mary Cassatt The Boating Party, 1893-4

Mary Cassatt's style and view on gender roles can be summed up in her work The Boating Party.  This piece shows a mother holding her child with an
oarsman in the foreground.  Cassatt rejects spatial depth and instead relies on influence from Japanese prints and Manet as seen in her drawing of shapes and forms in the painting.  The water in the background is painted with visible brush strokes and shades of blue, representative of Impressionist style.  In regards to gender role, Cassatt portrays the woman as the central figure and being served by the oarsman.  The oarsman on the other hand faces away from the viewer showing his comparative unimportance to the woman and child.  The man is no longer the leader using his strength to display superiority.  Instead he uses his strength as a form of service to the woman.  The woman also confidently
holds her rambunctious child with ease.  In this manner, Cassatt portrays
motherhood not as a sign of submission, but rather as a heroic
choice.

Thomas Eakins The Gross Clinic, 1875

Thomas Eakins painted in a more Realist sense.  In The Gross Clinic, Eakins depicts a scene where a famous doctor is leading the operation of a young victim.  Eakins concentrates on representing the heroism of American professional achievement (Eisenman 378) with the intellectual stoicism displayed by the assistants and spectators in the background.  The figures in the foreground are detailed and focused.  Contrasting Cassatt's confident woman, Eakins portrays the only woman in this painting as a weak, emotional figure.  The woman, the mother of the victim, looks away and seems to be cowering as illustrated by her clenched hands brought close to her body.  In this sense, the woman is not a heroic figure with her child, but an irrational and emotional being.
New ideas will always be met with opposition.  Those who vehemently adhere to traditions will without a doubt reject progressive views. Cassatt and Eakins clearly show this dichotomy of not only art styles, but also gender viewpoints through their works.  But as history has proven countless times,
progression is an inevitable part of an educated society.

Works Cited/ References:
Eisenman, Stephen F. Nineteenth Century Art A Critical History Fourth Edition

All images courtesy of Wikipedia.

Link to locations of Mary Cassatt's works in museums

The Philadelphia Museum of Art