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The Bath

Mary Cassatt American
1890–91
Not on view
An associate of the Impressionists who worked in Paris, Cassatt depicted mothers and children without sentimentality. Here, she lends a timeless quality to a child’s bath by accentuating flat, patterned aspects of the composition. Cassatt was an experimental printmaker, monitoring her developing designs by printing intermediary states in black. These stand alone as independent works of art and compare meaningfully to later color impressions taken from the same plate. This is the only known impression of the fifth state of The Bath, with reinforced drypoint lines defining folds of the dress; incomplete burnishing produced the atmospheric gray tone.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Bath
  • Artist: Mary Cassatt (American, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1844–1926 Le Mesnil-Théribus, Oise)
  • Date: 1890–91
  • Medium: Drypoint, soft-ground etching and aquatint, printed in black ink from one plate; fifth state of seventeen (Mathews & Shapiro)
  • Dimensions: plate: 12 9/16 x 9 3/4 in. (31.9 x 24.8 cm)
    plate: 16 1/16 x 11 3/4 in. (40.8 x 29.8 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Gift of Arthur Sachs, 1916
  • Object Number: 16.3.1
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

More Artwork
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The Map, Mary Cassatt American, Drypoint; second state of three
The Map
Mary Cassatt
1890
Mother Berthe Holding Her Child, Mary Cassatt American, Drypoint; second state of two
Mother Berthe Holding Her Child
Mary Cassatt
ca. 1889
The Barefooted Child, Mary Cassatt American, Drypoint and aquatint, printed in color from three plates; fifth state of five
The Barefooted Child
Mary Cassatt
ca. 1896–97
The Stocking, Mary Cassatt American, Drypoint; fifth state of six
The Stocking
Mary Cassatt
1890
The Mirror, Mary Cassatt American, Drypoint; sixth state of six
The Mirror
Mary Cassatt
ca. 1891

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