The last decades of the ninteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth constituted one of the most rapidly changing and revolutionary periods in the history of art. After nearly half a millenium of dominance, the Renaissance tradition finally began to collapse as the foundation of pictorial art in western culture. Radical new art forms emerged from the maelstrom of frenetic creative activitity which filled those decades. Beginning with Realism and Impressionism and moving on to Cubism, Constructivism, and Dada among many other styles, those fifty-odd years left reverberations which are still being felt in art. Mary Cassatt, Cecilia Beaux, and Martha Walter, like most serious and thoughtful artists of the period, were caught up in this storm of change and cast in their different directions by it. Along with their contemporaries, "The Eight," these artists reflect the early phases of transition which led to modern art.
