NARRATOR:
American artist Mary Cassatt made this painting around 1905. Known for her images of women and children, Cassatt was progressive both in her modern, Impressionist technique and her feminist views on politics and society.  

NIKKI GEORGOPULOS:
I’m Nikki Georgopulos and I'm the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow for French Paintings.

Whether or not the child and the woman were related, they have this very close, intimate relationship. Cassatt was concerned with the future, and so I think that in this way we can understand this image as one of guidance.

MARIA BERRIO:
My name is Maria Berrio and I am an artist. And if you look at that small mirror, it contains that little girl’s reflection, but it's almost like she's trapped in a small circle. But here Cassatt is saying that society will contain you, but that it's up to us to see yourself and see how capable we are to escape those parameters. So, seeing this painting, to me, is really beautiful - how she tried to portray this woman teaching this young child how to see herself.

NARRATOR:
As well as the mirror, the sunflower worn by the woman is especially prominent. It may have pointed to women’s struggle to gain the right to vote.  

NIKKI GEORGOPULOS:
What I came to uncover was that when Cassatt painted the painting, which is in about 1905, the sunflower had become the primary symbol for the American Suffrage Movement. She had a very clever way of cloaking her more radical beliefs in this subject matter that was seen as acceptable for her as a woman artist.