This paper explores the significance of Mary Cassatt's tripartite mural, Modern Woman, which was installed in the hail of fame at the Woman's Building at the Chicago Exposition of 1893. It examines Cassatt's conception and the manner in which the painting was executed. The paper then focuses on the reception of the painting and the nature of criticism, and how the painting articulated changes regarding the role and place of women that were occurring in late nineteenth-century America. Bertha Palmer, the president of the Board of Lady Managers that governed the pavilion, commissioned the painting with the purpose of illuminating the advancement of contemporary American women. The mural presented scenes where women of different generations actively engaged in activities such as plucking the fruits of knowledge and artistic performances of music, dance, and the arts. By depicting women as strong and independent, Cassatt intended to create a portrait of the ""New Woman"" who sought autonomy and assertion of the right for a career, while rejecting conventional female roles that were common at the turn of the century. In this work, Cassatt employed a traditional vocabulary popular for that time: the use of an Arcadian setting, the symbol of the tree of knowledge, women in the orchards, and women as players of music and dance in nature. However, the work was not well received. Many critics rejected the painting because of the manner in which the subject was portrayed. They considered its wide ornamented frame, intense colors, and its realistic depiction of women as inappropriate and unacademic. Moreover, as the painting included many traditional motifs in its style, they could not read and interpret clearly what was ""modern"" in this work. The paper argues that Cassatt, in fact, transposed and modernized traditional motifs to transform a conventional narrative of woman as Muse and Eve into an allegory of the ""New Woman"" who served as the agent for new hopes and ambitions.
