Mary Cassatt was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania and by about 1850, her family settled in Philadelphia. She took classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from about the age of 15 and was enrolled there between 1861 and 1865. She was not entirely satisfied with the Academy and in 1866, she moved to Paris to take private lessons from masters from the École des Beaux-Arts such as Jean-Léon Gérôme. In 1868 she, along with Elizabeth Jane Gardner became the first two American women to have works accepted for the Paris Salon. She briefly returned to the US, staying with her family in Altoona PA, but the lack of artistic stimulation quickly led to her returning to Europe.

After some initial successes with the Paris Salon, Cassatt became increasingly disillusioned with the politics of the institution and their apparent contempt for female artists, and in 1877 she was invited by Edgar Degas to exhibit with the Impressionists. She was an admirer of Degas and enthusiastically accepted the invitation. She went on to exhibit in about half of their exhibitions, and remained friends with many of them after they disbanded.

At the turn of the century, Cassatt was also advising a number of prominent American art collectors, and encouraged them to donate their works to American museums.