Mary Cassatt at the Musée d'Orsay: A Family Stop in Paris

A detour worth taking

If you are anywhere near Paris before 31 January 2027, make time for "Mary Cassatt. L'indépendante" at the Musée d'Orsay. We nearly drove straight past.

We were heading home to Amsterdam after a buying trip, the van full of paintings and two teenagers in the back. A few hours in Paris felt like a luxury we couldn't afford. We stopped anyway, and it turned out to be the highlight of the whole trip.

Spending my days looking at 19th-century paintings, I expected to enjoy it. I didn't expect the kids to be just as impressed.

The first big Cassatt show in France

It is hard to believe, but this is the first major exhibition the French national museums have ever given Mary Cassatt. The timing is deliberate: she died in 1926, so 2026 marks her centenary, and the Musée d'Orsay is also celebrating its own 40th birthday.

Cassatt (1844–1926) was born near Pittsburgh but lived in France for some six decades. She was the only American, and one of very few women, to exhibit with the Impressionists, invited by her friend Edgar Degas. She showed with them four times from 1879.

The exhibition gathers about 80 paintings, pastels and prints from her whole career. Many come from American collections and are rarely seen in Europe. It was organised with the National Portrait Gallery in London and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and curated at Orsay by Caroline Corbeau-Parsons and Anne Robbins.

The thread running through every room is independence. Cassatt was proud of it: she ran her own studio, paid her own models, earned her own money and bought her own château. The show argues that this independence shaped her art as much as her life.

What impressed us most

The show moves roughly in order through her life, and each room adds a new side of her. These were the moments that stayed with us.

• The early work. Her first paintings and portraits of family and friends show how carefully she studied the old masters on her travels before she ever met the Impressionists.
• Modern women out in the world. Her young women at the theatre, receiving guests or simply sitting in a garden are confident and alive. Jeune fille au jardin (1880–82), from Orsay's own collection, is the image on every poster, and it is even better in person.
• Mothers and children. This is the subject she is famous for, and the show explains that it was also a smart business choice: these pictures were in demand, and she made her living from them.
• The Japanese-inspired prints. Her set of ten colour prints, made after she saw an exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints, is a quiet high point. The flat colour and bold lines feel startlingly modern.
• The lost mural. In 1893 she painted Modern Woman, a 4 × 18 metre decoration for the Woman's Building at the Chicago World's Fair. It has since disappeared. A film with a digital reconstruction lets you see what it might have looked like, and the kids stood in front of it for a long time.
• Votes for women. The final room shows paintings from a 1915 New York exhibition that Cassatt and Havemeyer organised to raise money for women's suffrage. It is a strong ending that ties the art back to the woman.

Bringing teenagers

Teenagers and art museums can be a hard sell, but this one worked, and I think I know why.

Cassatt's story is easy to connect with. She was a young woman who told her wealthy family what she wanted to do, moved abroad, and made it on her own terms. The exhibition tells that story clearly, so it never feels like a list of pictures to get through. 

We also watched some video's before our visit so they had some knowledge about Mary Cassatt works and her life, which did a great job to prepare them. 

The scale also helps. Around 80 works is enough to impress without exhausting anyone, and the film of the lost mural gives everyone a break from standing and looking.

The practical bonus: under-18s get in free, so bringing the kids costs you nothing extra.

Plan your own visit

The exhibition runs from 6 October 2026 to 31 January 2027. Your ticket also covers the museum's permanent collection, so you can see Monet, Degas and Van Gogh on the same visit.

Our tips

• Book ahead, even for free tickets. Since March 2026 the museum works with timed entry slots, and kids and EU under-26s also need to reserve one. We had no line up. 
• Bring ID for the free tickets. Staff check ages and residency at the door.
• Go early or on a Thursday evening. Arrive at 9:30, or come after 18:00 on Thursday when it is quieter and cheaper.
• Expect some building work. The museum is renovating its entrance areas until 2028. All galleries stay open, but the way in may differ from what you remember.
• Add a second show. Until 6 December 2026, Orsay also has an exhibition on Marie and Félix Bracquemond. Marie was another woman Impressionist, and she makes a perfect pairing with Cassatt.
• Driving in like us? The museum is central, so park outside the busiest streets and finish the trip on the RER or metro. 

If you go, I'd love to hear which painting stayed with you.

Sources

• Musée d'Orsay: Mary Cassatt exhibition page
• Paris je t'aime: exhibition listing
• Finestre sull'Arte: exhibition review
• Art Visit Guide: Orsay opening hours 2026
• Art Visit Guide: Orsay free admission 2026