I think that if you shake the tree, you ought to be around when the fruit falls to pick it up.

Cassatt was one of seven children of which two died in infancy. She lived much of her adult life in France where Mary Cassatt first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists. She also became a role model for young American artists who sought her advice.

Cassatt often created images of the social and private lives of women with particular emphasis on the intimate bonds between mothers and children. She was described by Gustave Geffroy in 1894 as one of "les trois grandes dames" of Impressionism alongside Marie Bracquemond and Berthe Morisot. Mary Stevenson Cassatt (pron.