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Recently after the Franco-Prussian War began in 1870, Cassatt unenthusiastically returned home and directly encountered obstacles that threatened to put an end to her career. Living with her parents in a small town right outside Philadelphia, she began having conflicts with finding people that would be willing to model for her. To make matters worse, her father announced that he would provide for her basic needs, but not for anything connected with her work. In an attempt to raise some money, she left some of her paintings with an art dealer in New York, but he was unable to interest any buyers. She then took them to a dealer in Chicago, where they were all destroyed in the catastrophic fire of 1871. .
Mary Cassatt made a decision to choose a career in art over a future in marriage. Cassatt was close to hopelessness when the archbishop of Pittsburgh contacted her in late 1871 and commissioned her to paint copies of two works by the Italian master Correggio. Since the originals were on display in Parma, Italy, she accepted the assignment and left immediately for Europe. She used the money she had earned to travel and resume her career in Europe. The Paris Salon accepted one of her paintings for the 1872 exhibition, and again she found herself the toast of the continent. Over the following one to two years, she visited Spain, Belgium, and Rome to continue her studies. .
After the Paris Salon accepted two more of her works in 1873 and 1874, Cassatt settled permanently in the French capital. Feeling more and more forced by the inflexible guidelines of the Salon, Cassatt decided to paint how and what she wanted, not just what was fashionable or commercial. According to Critics, her colors were too bright and that her portraits were too accurate to be appropriately flattering to the subject. When she spied some pastels by Degas in a Paris art dealer's window, she knew she was not alone in her rebellion against the Salon.