This volume - illustrated with thirty-two full color plates and published in cooperation with the National Gallery of Art - displays the power and mastery of an artist who is only now beginning to receive the full recognition she deserves. The text and accompanying chronology traces Mary Cassatt's career from her academic art studies in Philadelphia, through her discovery of the works of Manet, Degas, and other impressionists to her highly successful one-woman shows at Gallerie Durand-Ruel, the impressionist's loyal art dealer. Excerpts from the correspondence between Mary Cassatt and her closest friend, Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, help to illuminate the artist's personality. Most of the quotations from these letters appear in print for the first time in this volume.