The Child's Bath
1893
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
101.3 × 67.3 cm (39 15/16 × 26 1/2 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
111442
Art Historical Context
Mary Cassatt’s * Child’s Bath* (3) offers an intimate glimpse into domestic life, a subject the artist returned to throughout her career. An American painter who lived and worked in France, Cassatt was the only American to exhibit with the Impressionists. In this oil-on-canvas painting she depicts a mother gently bathing her child, using the fluid properties of oil to render soft skin tones, fabric folds, and the quiet play of light across the scene. The work’s slightly elevated viewpoint and cropped framing reflect Cassatt’s interest in Japanese prints, which encouraged her to simplify forms...
About the Artist
Mary Cassatt
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was an American painter and printmaker who became the only American artist to exhibit with the French Impressionists. Born to a wealthy Pennsylvania family, she defied social conventions to pursue art professionally, settling permanently in Paris where Edgar Degas invited her to join the Impressionist group in 1877. Her paintings of mothers and children—rendered with Impre...