This catalog accompanied an exhibition of works by Mary Cassatt, the sixth in a continuing series organized by the National Gallery of Art to honor important American artists. Cassatt, America’s greatest female artist, was one of a group of American artists, including James McNeill Whistler and John Singer Sargent, who lived and worked abroad. Like them, she benefited from the extraordinary artistic developments occurring in Paris during the last quarter of the 19th century, particularly since Edgar Degas was her mentor. Yet she was able to absorb these influences and combine them with an inherent native quality which marks her work as distinctively American. This catalog includes an introductory biography and notes by Adelyn D. Breeskin, author of Cassatt’s catalogue raisonné, as well as entries and reproductions for each work in the exhibition.