Mary Cassatt was the only American ever invited to exhibit with the French Impressionists. The four works of art appearing on the four stamps that make up the block stamps are:

* Young Mother, 1888, The Art Institute of Chicago
* Children Playing on the Beach, 1884, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
* On a Balcony, 1878/79, The Art Institute of Chicago
* Child in a Straw Hat, circa 1886, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Mary Stevenson Cassatt was born on May 22, 1844, in Allegheny City (now part of Pittsburgh), PA. She attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and continued her studies in Europe, settling permanently in Paris in the mid-1870s. In 1877, at the invitation of Edgar Degas, who became her friend and mentor, Cassatt joined the circle of revolutionary French painters who became known as the Impressionists.

Recurring themes in Cassatt's paintings, pastels, prints and etchings include children engaging in various pastimes and contemporary women pursuing everyday activities such as entertaining visitors, reading and caring for children. Paying careful attention to naturalistic pose and gesture, she developed a vigorous, innovative style and rendered her domestic subjects with a refreshingly unsentimental intimacy. By the end of the 19th century Cassatt was recognized as a preeminent artist in both France and the United States. She died in France on June 14, 1926.