Mary Cassatt

American-born painter Mary Cassatt grew up in Pennsylvania but spent the better part of her life and career in France, yet that did not prevent her from gaining a preeminent position among artists in the United States. At the height of her career, she focused almost exclusively on depictions of mothers and children, a subject that became her signature theme. By the outbreak of World War I, Cassatt had to give up painting entirely due to failing eyesight, but she preserved her original enthusiasm and devotion to art until the end of her life.