I will be honest. I had never heard of the American Impressionist Mary Cassatt until I discovered we were cousins. Turns out Mary and I descend from Louis DuBois, a French Huguenot who fled persecution in his home country. Louis arrived in present day upper state New York in 1661 and established a community of like-minded individuals. Mary and I are connect via his son, Jacob DuBois, so that makes us fifth cousins, 3x removed.

Padma and I were in Paris to move Joseph out of his sixth floor flat. We loaded the car up on Saturday and took a break on Sunday to visit the Musée d’Orsay. We were really enjoying the Impressionists on the fifth floor and just as we were looking for more Monets I stumbled across Mary’s sole painting in the museum – ‘Girl in the Garden’.

Mary was an American but must have felt her ancestral ties to France. She spent most of her adult life in Paris and proved to be a mover and shaker on the Parisian art scene in the late 1880s – quite unusual for a woman in those days. As a result, the d’Orsay no doubt wanted to recognise her contributions by adding her to their permanent exhibition.

It’s a bit of a stretch to say Mary and I are related but who cares. I felt a connection to her and it certainly made me appreciate ‘Girl in the Garden’ much more.