Today we're rethinking everything we thought we knew about Mary Cassatt. On this episode of Big Blend Radio's "World of Art" Podcast, host Victoria Chick and Lisa D. Smith welcome Mary G. Morton, curator and head of French paintings at the National Gallery of Art, to talk about her new book, "Cassatt Reconsidered," out this November from Getty Publications.

2026 marks the centennial of Mary Cassatt's death (born May 22, 1844, died June 14, 1926), and Mary Morton makes the case for an artist who was bold, modern, and uncompromising. Cassatt's images of mothers and children are an extraordinary part of her work, but they're only part of the story. Mary explains how a narrow label took hold and what the fuller picture looks like.

In this conversation: - How Cassatt built a career at a time when the École des Beaux-Arts did not admit women, and why selling her work mattered - The business-minded family that shaped her, and the role of dealer Paul Durand-Ruel in packaging her as "the painter of mothers and babies" - Why her maternity pictures were a realist break from the sentimental versions painted by men - Why the National Gallery holds the best Cassatt collection in the world, and why seven of its 12 oil paintings can't leave the building - The centennial exhibitions in Chicago, at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, in London, and in Boston - The cover painting, and how a woman's portrait that defies conventional beauty became the face of the book - Why the National Gallery belongs to all of us, and what a first visit to a great museum can do for a life

MORE: - Get the Book: https://shop.getty.edu/products/cassatt-reconsidered-979-8887120508 - Victoria Chick: https://victoriachick.com/ - World of Art Podcast: https://worldofart-victoriachick.podbean.com/ - Southwest Regional Museum of Art & Art Center: https://www.southwest-art-museum.org