29、(1分)
“I would almost rather
see you dead,” Robert S. Cassatt, a leading banker (银行家) of Philadelphia, shouted when his twenty-year-old eldest daughter
announced that she wanted to become an artist. In the 19th century, playing at
drawing or painting on dishes was all right for a young lady, but serious work
in art was not. And when the young lady’s family ranked
among (跻身于) the best of Philadelphia’s social (社交界的) families, such an idea could
not even be considered.
That was how Mary Cassatt,
born 1844, began her struggle as an artist. She did not tremble before her
father’s
anger. Instead, she opposed (抗拒) him with courage and
at last made him change his mind. Mary Cassatt gave up her social position (社会地位) and all thought of a husband and a family, which in those times
was unthinkable for a young lady. In the end, after long years of hard work and
perseverance (坚持), she became America’s most important woman artist and the internationally recognized
leading woman painter of the time.