Academic Art:
Art conforming or meeting the standards of the French Academy, the official body that promoted art based on the classical ideals.

Aquatint:
A method of printmaking in which tonal areas, ranging from a light gray to a deep black, rather than lines are created on a metal plate. The print made from that plate resembles a drawing done with watercolor washes.

Drypoint:
A method of printmaking in which the design is scratched directly into the metal plate with a sharply pointed tool. The most distinctive characteristic of a drypoint print made from that plate is the raised "burr" left on both sides of the cut line, similar in appearance to an image drawn with a felt-tip pen on damp paper.

Etching:
A method of printmaking in which the surface of a metal plate is scratched and then exposed to acid in order to deepen and widen the etched design. The print made from that plate can appear quite free and like a sketch.

Gouache:
Opaque watercolor. The term also refers to a painting created with this type of watercolor paint.

Impressionism:
Impressionism is not easily defined. Today it refers to an artistic movement that took place in nineteenth-century France from the 1860s to the 1880s. Originally, however, the newspaper critics used the term negatively, implying that the paintings were sketchy "impressions" and not finished works of art. Artists who created these works were united in their rejection of the traditional art upheld by the official Salon and in their concern for depicting modern life, but their methods and artistic aims varied. While Degas and Cassatt generally stressed the primacy of line and form over color and atmosphere, Monet, Renoir, and Pissarro made light and atmosphere the principal aspects of their art. In 1874 artists following this tradition mounted a privately organized exhibition of their own in what became known as the first "Impressionist exhibition." The last Impressionist exhibition was held in 1886.

Japanese Prints:
In the 1850s, as a result of the opening of Japan to Western trading vessels, Japanese art, including Japanese woodblock prints, was brought to Paris. These prints greatly influenced the Impressionists, among them Mary Cassatt. The artists were inspired by the Japanese artists' use of solid colors within stylized outlines and by their emphasis on the surface pattern of the print rather than the illusion of space. See Kitagawa Utamaro's Woman under an Umbrella.

Pastel:
A drawing stick made from pigments ground with chalk and mixed with gum water. The term also refers to drawings executed with these sticks.

Printmaking:
Making an inked impression from a variety of worked surfaces, such as a wooden block, metal plate, or a specially prepared stone.

The Salon:
France's official art showcase, which was established in 1667. The Salon encouraged, exhibited, and rewarded immaculately finished, conventional paintings, often on historical, religious, and mythological subjects. The Impressionists, with their sketchy technique and their concentration on modern life and landscapes, were repeatedly rejected by the Salon juries from the 1860s into the 1880s.