Mary Cassatt

Mary Cassatt was a headstrong, determined girl. She wanted to be an artist in 1860, a time when proper girls certainly weren't artists. It wasn't polite. But Mary herself wasn't polite. She pursued art with a passion, moving to Paris to study, painting what she saw. Her work was rejected by the Salon judges time and time again. One day, the great painter Edgar Degas invited her to join him and his group of independent artists, those who flouted the rules and painted as they pleased-the Impressionists. Mary was on her way.

"I began to live," said Mary. Today, her paintings hang in museums around the world, and she is recognized as one of the most celebrated female artists of all time.