Mary Cassatt was born on this day in 1844
A wonderful portrait by Edgar Degas, c. 1880-84 @ngadc
"I used to go and flatten my nose against that window and absorb all I could of Degas' art. It changed my life. I saw art then as I wanted to see it."
Remembering Mary Cassatt on her birthday
The First Lady & Paul Mellon look at Degas' Portrait of Mary Cassatt at the @ngadc, 1962
Mary Cassatt Self-Portrait, c. 1880 @si_npg
"M. Degas & Mlle. Cassatt are, nevertheless, the only artists who distinguish themselves... and who offer some attraction & some excuse in the pretentious show of window dressing & infantile daubing."
- Revue des Deux Mondes, 1879
Edgar Degas
Mary Cassatt au Louvre, 1879-80
Degas once said, "She has infinite talent." @si_npg
Today we're celebrating the birthday of Mary Cassatt
🎂🎉
Mary Cassatt in the gardens at St. Trophimes, Arles, 1912
She was forced to flee Beaufresne for Grasse, in southern France, in 1914, because her home was close to front lines in the first World War. She underwent several failed operations for cataracts, & would never paint again.
Mary Cassatt
Woman Bathing (La Toilette)
1890–91 @metmuseum
“I don’t believe a woman could draw that well. Did you really do this?”
Just when I was warming up to Degas, I read this quote.
Mary Cassatt: Summer (1894-5)
Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago
"With her deep knowledge of the history of art, Cassatt fearlessly took on the challenge of creating a new kind of painting."
- Griselda Pollock
Mary Cassatt, At the Theater, c. 1879
pastel on paper
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City
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Happy birthday to Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk 🎂
📷 Ara Güler
"His books are multi-layered, allegorical, sometimes fanciful, Proustian in their attention to detail and Borgesian in their dazzling complexity."
- Sarah Lyall
Orhan Pamuk by Sophie Bassouls, 1990
"Books, which we mistake for consolation, only add depth to our sorrow."
It's so great that other photographers have continued Philippe Halsman's #jump! tradition. Here's Orhan Pamuk by Alex Majoli.
This was taken at Cannes in 2007, when Pamuk was a member of the Festival Jury.
Celebrate the Richard Avedon Centennial 🎂💯
📷 Irving Penn, Vogue, August 23, 1993
"He was small, dark & electric with his own sort of vitality. Crackling. Sparks seem to fly out of him. He flashes his fingers like tiny rapid moths."
- Ginette Spanier
On Richard Avedon's Centennial, my favourite portraits
Carson McCullers & Tennessee Williams, April 25, 1950 #Avedon100
On Richard Avedon's Centennial, my favourite portraits
Buster Keaton, 1952 #Avedon100
I'm listening to Concerto Italiano play Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, in their 2005 recording under Rinaldo Alessandrini.
I've always loved the cover photo; it's by Julia Fullerton-Batten. I'll start a thread of some of my favourites of her photos here. 🧵
Julia Fullerton-Batten
The Lady of Shalott, 2018
... which is, of course, a reinterpretation of John Waterhouse's 1888 painting of Lord Tennyson's poem.
Happy birthday Sofia Coppola 🎂
📷 Kate Barry
"Coppola is a true auteur — a filmmaker with a distinct worldview and sensibility and a personal set of quasi-autobiographical interests."
- J. Hoberman
Sofia with her dad on the set of Godfather 2
📷 Steve Schapiro, 1974
The Coppola family by Ted Streshinsky, 1974
Eleanor & Francis Ford Coppola with their kids Sofia, Roman & Gian-Carlo
Celebrate the Red Garland Centennial 🎂💯
📷 Bill Spilka, c. 1957
"Garland's style was understated and harmonically sophisticated; he would delineate a melody, then shade it with distinctively voiced block chords and hints of counterpoint."
- Jon Pareles #RedGarland100
Esmond Edwards' great album cover for Red Garland's "Red in Bluesville", from 1959. Edwards took the photo, & designed the album as well.
Remembering Bea Arthur on her birthday 🎂
📷 Martin Mills, 1972
"Those of us working with her knew we were working with a golden comedic touch." - Norman Lear
Beatrice Arthur with Bill Callaway & Carl Ballantine in Bruce Jay Friedman & Richard Adler's musical A Mother's Kisses
📷 Jack Mitchell, 1968
Angela Lansbury & Beatrice Arthur in Mame
📷 Friedman-Abeles, 1966
Arthur won the Best Featured Actress in a Musical Tony for her performance. She was Beatrice on the stage & Bea on TV.