"Mother Feeding Child" by Mary Cassatt

• Mary Cassatt was a prolific and influential American Impressionist and perhaps the artist most intrigued by family relationships. She spent much of her life in Paris and was particularly drawn to the relationships between mothers and their children. Her 1898 pastel portrait of a mother feeding her toddler daughter is a prime example of her attention to elements of family life. Other paintings by Mary Cassatt that concern family relationships are "Mother and Child - Baby Getting Up from His Nap" (1899); "Mother and Child" (1905); and "Breakfast in Bed" (1897).
  
  

"Mrs. Knowles and Her Children" by John Singer Sargent

• A meeting with Claude Monet in 1876 spurred John Singer Sargent's interest in Impressionism. While he gained infamy with his portrait of Parisian socialite Madame Pierre Gautreau (Virginie d'Avegno), Sargent gained his greatest fame (and income) as a portrait artist, with families of the social elite clamoring for his skills. His 1902 portrait of Mrs. Arthur Knowles and her sons, John and Richard, is at once grand and intimate, with the formally dressed trio casually posed on a settee. Sargent left a wealth of paintings regarding family, including "The Acheson Sisters" (1902) and "The Wyndam Sisters" (1899), which is widely regarded as one of Sargent's masterpieces.
  
  

"The Open Air Breakfast" by William Merritt Chase

• While American Impressionists like Cassatt and Sargent retained a strong sense of formality and structure in their works, William Merritt Chase was heavily influenced by French Impressionists; many of his works are rendered in broad, broken brushstrokes. They do not lack detail, however, as we can see in his painting of his own family, "The Open Air Breakfast - Toledo" (1888). While the portrait was posed, the work still retains the whimsy and freedom of an al fresco afternoon. Chase painted many scenes reflecting family life, including "The Fairy Tale" (1892) and "Mrs. Chase and Child - I'm Going to Visit Grandma" (1889).
  
  

"In a Garden (The Three Sisters - A Study of June Sunlight)" by Edmund Tarbell

• Edmund Tarbell was interested in scenes of family life, as was Mary Cassatt. "In a Garden" not only features Tarbell's attention to light and shadow but pays loving attention to the artist's subjects: his wife, daughter and sisters. This peaceful picture of family life is echoed in Tarbell's "Breakfast on the Piazza" (1902); "In the Orchard" (1891) and "My Family" (1914).