Reporting from Washington — In 1877, when he was 43, the French impressionist Edgar Degas began stopping by the studio of the 33-year-old American Mary Cassatt and offering her a point or two that ...

I’ve always thought of Mary Cassatt’s paintings as pretty, colorful and sweet — a shiny celebration of mothers, children and upper-class women of the late 19th century. I thought it was cool that ...