Art

I grew up in Washington DC and the near suburbs. One of the advantages of being in Washington was the wealth of cultural and historical resources available to the public. When I was quite young my mother made a point of taking me to the Smithsonian museums and the National Art Gallery (We called it the Mellon Art Gallery at the time because Andrew Mellon was one of the biggest donors.)

This painting, “The Boating Party” by Mary Cassatt was one of my favorites as a child and is still a favorite. I know next to nothing about art but I like the colors and the composition. Although it’s not a ‘realist’ painting it always seemed to me to depict something quite real.

The NGA has quite a nice collection of works by Mary Cassatt. This is another that I always liked – “Children Playing on the Beach”. I always identified with the photo because our family took annual vacations to the beach at Ocean City.

I think Mary Cassatt was a remarkable artist and I encourage you all to go and see her paintings at the National Gallery the next time you are in Washington. It’s a wonderful and peaceful place to visit. She and Edgar Degas worked closely together and you can see some of his work at the same time! I will close with her self-portrait which hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington.