For a painter who lived in France for some six decades and exhibited four times with the Impressionists at Edgar Degas’s invitation, Mary Cassatt (1844\u20131926) has had a strangely faint presence in French national museums. That changes today. On 6 October 2026 the Mus\u00e9e d’Orsay opens Mary Cassatt. L’ind\u00e9pendante<\/em>, which the museum describes as the first major exhibition France’s national museums have ever devoted to her. It runs until 31 January 2027 and marks the centenary of her death.<\/p>\n

The gap is real. Orsay’s own archive lists only one earlier show under her name: a 1988 presentation, organised with the Biblioth\u00e8que nationale, centred on her graphic work. Nearly four decades on, the museum is attempting something far more ambitious \u2014 close to 80 paintings, pastels and prints spanning her entire career, including rarely shown works from European public and private collections and American loans seldom seen outside the United States. The curators also draw on previously unpublished letters.<\/p>\n

Installed on level 0, in the museum’s main exhibition space, and mounted with the exceptional participation of the Biblioth\u00e8que nationale de France, the exhibition will then travel to the National Portrait Gallery in London (4 March \u2013 6 June 2027) and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (7 July \u2013 28 November 2027).<\/p>\n