A friend of mine recently reawakened my interest in Mary Cassatt, definitely one of my favourite artists ever. I pulled out a book I had bought ten years ago Mary Cassatt, Modern Woman (put out by the Art Institute of Chicago), and the first thing I came across was this etching, done by Winslow Homer for Harpers.


It's a striking etching taken from a gallery in the Louvre. Note the number of students and copyists, the hanging style for the pictures and compare them to what one sees in most modern museums, where pictures tend to be hung miles apart, and one rarely sees anyone trying to draw from them.

What does that say about the state of modern art?