Joslyn Art Museum in partnership with Creighton University presents stimulating lectures by Creighton faculty in Joslyn’s Abbott Lecture Hall on
select Sundays at 2:00 pm. CU at Joslyn, offered in collaboration with Creighton’s University College, presents a variety of topics and interdisciplinary perspectives on Joslyn’s collections or exhibitions.
CU at Joslyn is free with regular museum admission for general public, and always free for Museum members and Creighton students and faculty with ID.
"An American in Paris: Mary Cassatt and the French Impressionists" presented by Jan Lund, Modern Languages and Literatures
One of the first persons to admire the French Impressionists was a young American woman, living and painting in Paris, who had discovered Edgar Degas’ pastels in a little boutique. The work pleased her so much that, not yet really knowing who the artist was, she bought up several of his works, paying less than 100 francs for them. She would, over time, develop a veritable veneration of Degas.
Mary Cassatt had decided to be a painter and had come to France to do it. Degas would later say, “I don’t admit that a woman can draw as well as she can!” This talk will explore the life, times and works of the American woman who was accepted into the group of French Impressionists as an equal, and who is given much credit for bringing French Impressionism into the twentieth century. The talk will highlight Joslyn’s Cassatt masterpiece
Femme Lisant, Lydia Reading the Morning Paper, one of dozens of portraits Mary Cassatt did using her sister as the model.
Image: Cassatt, Mary (American,1844-1926),
Woman Reading (Femme lisant) or
Lydia Reading the Morning Paper, or
Portrait of Lydia Cassatt, the Artist's Sister, 1878-79, oil on canvas mounted on panel; Museum purchase (1943.38)
Jan Lund was born and raised in Council Bluffs, Iowa and received her BA in French from the University of Iowa. She received the
Degré Supérieur in French Language and Civilization from the University of Paris (the Sorbonne) where she also specialized in art history. She received her MA at UNO in foreign language education.
Her honors and awards are numerous, most notably in 2000 the government of France’s Ministry of Education conferred upon Lund the honorary title of “Knight of the Order of the French Academic Palmes” (
Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques), France’s highest education honor. She presently serves on the Board of Directors of the Cathedral Arts Project, the Ralston Community Theater and the Anti-Defamation League of B’Nai Brith in Omaha, as well as the Board of Directors of the Alliance Française, groupe d’ Omaha.