Lady at the Tea Table

1880–1881

The Impressionist exhibitions of 1880 and 1881

Mary takes part in the next two Impressionist exhibitions and remains an active member of the circle until 1886. The only American officially associated with the group, she would go on to exhibit in half of its later shows.

1882

Death of her sister Lydia

Mary gives up painting to nurse her mother and her sister Lydia, who fell ill after the move to Paris in 1877. In 1882 Lydia dies, while her mother recovers.

1883

Adviser to the Havemeyer family

Mary’s friend Louisine Elder marries Harry Havemeyer, and with Mary as adviser the couple begin collecting the Impressionists on a grand scale. Much of their vast collection is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

mid-1880s

Returns to painting

Mary’s mother recovers, and after nursing the sick and losing her sister she takes up painting again. Her style changes: she moves away from Impressionism towards a simpler, more direct manner.

1886

Two paintings at the first Impressionist exhibition in the US

Mary lends two paintings to the first Impressionist exhibition in the United States, organised by the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel.

1886

Parting ways with Impressionism

From 1886 Mary no longer identifies with any movement and tries a variety of styles; a series of rigorous, unsentimental pictures of mother and child becomes the main theme of her best-known work.