On June 14, 2026, it was exactly one hundred years since Mary Cassatt died – the only American artist invited into the circle of the French Impressionists. Now she is being honored with the first major exhibition ever devoted to her by a French national museum: this fall, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris opens a retrospective featuring nearly eighty works. For anyone who loves the light of Impressionism, it’s an opportunity to rediscover an artist whose scenes of mothers, children, and quiet moments of everyday life feel just as at home as posters on a Swedish wall today as they did in 1880s Paris. Here’s the story behind the anniversary – and how to bring it home.
Quick facts: The exhibition “Mary Cassatt – Le choix de l'indépendance” (The Choice of Independence) is on view at the Musée d'Orsay from October 6, 2026, to January 31, 2027, in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery in London and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It brings together around eighty paintings, pastels, drawings, and prints and is the first major exhibition devoted to Cassatt by a French national museum, despite her central role in the Impressionist movement. She died on June 14, 1926.
What’s happening in Paris – and why it matters
The fact that France waited a hundred years to give Mary Cassatt her own major museum exhibition says something about the way art history has long treated its women. Cassatt was one of only three women to exhibit with the Impressionists and the group’s only American, yet her name has often been overshadowed by Monet, Degas, and Renoir. The Musée d’Orsay’s 2026 retrospective corrects that imbalance. The title “The Choice of Independence” refers both to her financial independence – she managed her own sales and collectors – and to the artistic freedom that allowed her to break the rules of her time about what a woman was expected to paint.
For Swedish art lovers, the anniversary is more than Paris news. It turns the spotlight on a visual world that feels remarkably at home in Nordic interiors: muted daylight, soft interiors, and an intimacy that never turns sentimental. When one of the world’s most respected museums puts an artist in the spotlight, it often influences what we choose to hang at home – and Cassatt’s calm, bright subjects work just as well as posters today as they did in a Paris salon.
The background: an American woman at the heart of Impressionism
Mary Cassatt was born in 1844 in Pennsylvania to a wealthy family that opposed her artistic ambitions. She defied them, traveled to Europe, and eventually settled in Paris, where her life took a decisive turn when Edgar Degas invited her to exhibit with the Impressionists in 1877. It was a bold choice: the group was scorned by critics and commercially risky. Cassatt joined anyway, because its free brushwork and everyday subjects aligned with her own conviction about what art could be.
Her signature subject became mother and child - but not as a pious idyll. Cassatt portrayed the everyday work of caring with a keen eye: a mother bathing her child, a girl half-asleep in an armchair, a moment of turning away rather than posed happiness. She was also a master of color printmaking and was deeply inspired by Japanese woodblock prints, whose flat surfaces and cropped compositions can be seen in her most innovative prints. This cross-fertilization between East and West makes her surprisingly modern and explains why her images feel so at home in a contemporary, Japandi-inspired Nordic room.
"Cassatt did not paint the idealized mother, but the real one - and that is precisely why her subjects hold up a hundred years later, in a museum and on the wall at home."
The Japanese connection that makes Cassatt so modern
In 1890, Mary Cassatt saw a major exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints in Paris, and the experience changed her art. She was captivated by the flat areas of color, bold cropping, and everyday subjects of women at their dressing tables or with their children - subjects that were close to her own visual language. The result was a series of color prints considered among her most innovative works, where Western drawing meets East Asian composition. It is this graphic clarity that makes her images feel strikingly contemporary and explains why they fit so well in a Japandi-inspired Nordic room, with its balance of negative space and subject matter.
For anyone decorating, this insight is useful. When you’re looking for a Cassatt-like look, you don’t need to get stuck on Impressionism as a period - look for that particular combination of calm color, clear composition, and everyday subjects. You’ll find it in Japanese woodblock prints, Nordic tranquility, and much of the contemporary illustration that dominates walls today. In a way, Cassatt stands at the intersection of several of the styles that are most popular right now, making her anniversary more than a historical footnote.
The connection to home and Bozetto’s range
What makes Cassatt so useful in interior design is that her art never shouts. The muted tones, soft backlighting, and peaceful subjects fit into a bright Scandinavian room without taking over. An Impressionist poster in her spirit serves as a quiet focal point on the wall - something for the eye to rest in rather than stop at. At a time when many interior design trends lean toward the dramatic and dark, it's a counterbalance worth embracing.
If you want to capture the same mood without seeking out Cassatt images specifically, there are several ways to explore our catalog. You'll recognize the Impressionist treatment of light in our Monet posters, where painters of the same generation worked with daylight and atmosphere. Among our famous artists, you'll find more classic images in the same spirit, and Cassatt's mother-and-child theme lives on in soft, warm children's prints. For those drawn to her botanical and flower-adorned interiors, botanical posters are a natural next step.
Practical recommendations: subjects, sizes, and rooms
Cassatt's intimate scale works best in rooms where you can get close to the art. The bedroom is the most natural choice - a muted image above the headboard in 30x40 or 50x70 offers the same quiet presence as her interiors. The nursery is another obvious choice, where the mother-and-child theme and soft colors work without becoming saccharine. Here, a smaller size such as 21x30 can be hung at the child's eye level, so the picture becomes something the child can actually see.
In the living room, the Cassatt mood benefits from company. Create a calm grouping of two or three Impressionist images in uniform, slim wooden frames in oak or white - a more restrained framing that lets the soft colors speak. Avoid heavy gold frames here; they pull the look in a completely different, more ostentatious direction than Cassatt's understated elegance. For dining rooms and hallways, a single portrait or figure study brings warmth to the room without demanding attention.
How to create a tranquil Impressionist gallery wall
A wall inspired by Cassatt is built from the bottom up and outward, not around one dominant image. Start with an anchor piece - a portrait or interior in muted tones - and then build it out with a couple of smaller works in the same light palette. The idea is harmony rather than contrast: all the images should feel as though they were captured in the same soft afternoon light. Keep the background wall light, preferably warm white or muted gray-green, so the subtle tones in the images aren't overwhelmed.
The distance between frames matters. For a calm Impressionist grouping, keep an even gap of five to ten centimeters and use identical frames. This creates order that lets the gentle artwork take center stage without making the wall feel cluttered. To add depth, you can mix formats - a larger central piece flanked by two smaller ones - but always keep the same frame palette. An Impressionist wall thrives on unity; it’s precisely the absence of visual noise that makes it so soothing to rest your eyes on after a long day.
Tip: Cassatt often worked in pastel, a medium with a matte, powdery surface. Choose a poster on matte paper rather than glossy paper - it reproduces the soft transitions better and avoids reflections that would otherwise distract from the subtle tones in this kind of artwork.
It’s worth remembering that Cassatt was not only an artist but also one of the most important art advocates of her time. Through her connections in the United States, she persuaded wealthy American collectors to buy Impressionist art, and much of what hangs in American museums today is there thanks to her advice. So, long before today’s interest in interior design, she understood that art belongs not only in the drawing room but in people’s everyday lives and homes. Choosing a poster in her spirit is, in a way, carrying on the very idea she devoted her life to: that great art should be something you live with, not something you merely visit.
Frequently asked questions about Mary Cassatt and her art
If you want to delve deeper into the Impressionist world of art, you can read our guide to Claude Monet, explore how another pioneering female artist has shaped trendy homes in our article about Hilma af Klint, or get practical advice for the room where Cassatt fits best in our guide to posters for children's rooms.
The centenary of Mary Cassatt's death is a reminder that the subjects that endure the longest are rarely the loudest. Her quiet depictions of intimacy and everyday life have outlasted a century of changing tastes, and they look just as at home on a Swedish wall in 2026 as they do in Orsay's galleries this autumn. If you want to bring the same calm presence into your home, you can find a starting point among our artworks by famous artists today.
Source: Musée d'Orsay – Mary Cassatt, The Choice of Independence and Artprice – Mary Cassatt at the Musée d'Orsay.