With loss of sight Mary Cassatt was no longer able to paint after 1914. She decided at an early age not to accept marriage proposals because it would interfere with her career as an artist. She was linked to neither heterosexual nor lesbian relationships, which were not unheard of among French artistic circles of the time. Her outspokenness was uniquely directed at developments in the art world. Her legacy today remains her attention to societal female roles, especially to the intimate family relationships between mothers and children and she is perhaps the best-known female American painter of any period.<ref>Mathews, Nancy Mowll, Mary Cassatt: A Life, 1998, Yale University Press.</ref> | With loss of sight Mary Cassatt was no longer able to paint after 1914. She decided at an early age not to accept marriage proposals because it would interfere with her career as an artist. She was linked to neither heterosexual nor lesbian relationships, which were not unheard of among French artistic circles of the time. Her outspokenness was uniquely directed at developments in the art world. Her legacy today remains her attention to societal female roles, especially to the intimate family relationships between mothers and children and she is perhaps the best-known female American painter of any period.<ref>Mathews, Nancy Mowll, Mary Cassatt: A Life, 1998, Yale University Press.</ref> |