After training in Philadelphia in the early 1860s, Cassatt traveled to Europe largely on her own to study with noted teachers and experience the continent’s traditional and modern art firsthand. In 1877 she made the daring decision to join the French Impressionists—the only American to exhibit with them. It was in the years following the eighth and final Impressionist group show in 1886 that Cassatt produced some of her most innovative—and now celebrated—compositions.