Musée d'Orsay to Host Major Mary Cassatt Retrospective in 2026

The Musée d'Orsay in Paris will present "Mary Cassatt. L'indépendante" from October 6, 2026 to January 31, 2027, the first major exhibition in France dedicated to the American Impressionist. Featuring over 80 works including paintings, pastels, prints, and previously unexplored archival letters, the show reexamines Cassatt's career through the lens of independence. Cassatt (1844-1926) was the only American to join the Impressionist circle in 1874, exhibiting with them in 1880, 1881, and 1886. Discovered by Edgar Degas at the 1870 Salon, she trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and in Paris under Jean-Léon Gérôme. The exhibition highlights her role in promoting Impressionism in America and her feminist engagement, notably through the lost monumental mural "Modern Woman" (1893) for the Chicago World's Fair, reconstructed via digital restoration. International loans come from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the National Gallery, London, and the Musée d'Orsay.