Lisa Groen's Blog

I’m the author of The Cassatt Sisters: A Novel of Love and Art (October 2025). Escape into Art is a place you’ll find paintings and miscellanea about American Impressionist Mary Cassatt and her circle of artist friends, along with delicious bites from Paris during La Belle Époque, the Beautiful Age.

It’s launch day for The Cassatt Sisters! I’m celebrating its official day of publication tonight at The King’s English in Salt Lake City (my independe...

One week away from publication, below you’ll find an excerpt from chapter one of my novel, The Cassatt Sisters, which I write in first-person, as Mary Cassatt. As you open the pages of my book, you’ll escape to Belle Époque Paris, to walk along the cobblestones of Montmartre, into Cassatt’s art studio and residence. You’ll get to know Mary’s sister and closest confidant, Lydia Cassatt, along with other artists in the Impressionist circle—especially Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, and Berthe Moris...

I’m the author of The Cassatt Sisters: A Novel of Love and Art (October 2025). Escape into Art is a place you’ll find paintings and miscellanea about American Impressionist Mary Cassatt and her circle of artist friends, along with delicious bites from Paris during La Belle Époque, the Beautiful Age.

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There’s a time when a creative project must leave the quiet room in which it was formed. For me, this is the pause before my novel is no longer just mine. I spent years on The Cassatt Sis...

I’m the author of The Cassatt Sisters: A Novel of Love and Art (October 2025). Escape into Art is a place you’ll find paintings and miscellanea about American Impressionist Mary Cassatt and her circle of artist friends, along with delicious bites from Paris during La Belle Époque, the Beautiful Age.

She worked more than a decade as an artist—as a copyist at the Louvre, as a student of the finest artists in Europe, as a portrait painter to make ends meet, and finally ...

I’m the author of The Cassatt Sisters: A Novel of Love and Art (October 2025). Escape into Art is a place you’ll find paintings and miscellanea about American Impressionist Mary Cassatt and her circle of artist friends, along with delicious bites from Paris during La Belle Époque, the Beautiful Age.

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Mary Cassatt is most known for her fine portraits of mothers and children. She captures the exquisite bond like few other artists.

What I didn’t realize until I began my research for The C...

I’m the author of The Cassatt Sisters: A Novel of Love and Art (October 2025). Escape into Art is a place you’ll find paintings and miscellanea about American Impressionist Mary Cassatt and her circle of artist friends, along with delicious bites from Paris during La Belle Époque, the Beautiful Age.

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Berthe Morisot was a founding member of the Impressionists, exhibiting paintings alongside Monet and Degas in 1874. Thirty artists claimed independence from the Salon and showcased their ...

I’m the author of The Cassatt Sisters: A Novel of Love and Art (October 2025). Escape into Art is a place you’ll find paintings and miscellanea about American Impressionist Mary Cassatt and her circle of artist friends, along with delicious bites from Paris during La Belle Époque, the Beautiful Age.

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Edgar Degas, one of the main characters of my historical novel, changed his name in his thirties from the original Hilaire-Germain-Edgar de Gas for...

I’m the author of The Cassatt Sisters: A Novel of Love and Art (October 2025). Escape into Art is a place you’ll find paintings and miscellanea about American Impressionist Mary Cassatt and her circle of artist friends, along with delicious bites from Paris during La Belle Époque, the Beautiful Age.

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This happened recently—a box of my books landed on my doorstep.

The Cassatt Sisters: A Novel of Love and Art has made the final leap. The novel began as a simple curiosity that led to res...

I’m the author of The Cassatt Sisters: A Novel of Love and Art (October 2025). Escape into Art is a place you’ll find paintings and miscellanea about American Impressionist Mary Cassatt and her circle of artist friends, along with delicious bites from Paris during La Belle Époque, the Beautiful Age.

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What captures your attention in this painting? What 1878 news caught the attention of this model, Mary Cassatt’s sister Lydia Cassatt? Perhaps she’s lear...

I’m the author of The Cassatt Sisters: A Novel of Love and Art (October 2025). Escape into Art is a place you’ll find paintings and miscellanea about American Impressionist Mary Cassatt and her circle of artist friends, along with delicious bites from Paris during La Belle Époque, the Beautiful Age.

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“I seem to keep hearing your name, Mademoiselle Cassatt. And I remember a picture of a Spanish woman you had at the Salon—”

“Ida.”

“She wore a ma...