Woman Bathing

1890-1891

Mary Cassatt

Artist, American, 1844 - 1926

Mary Cassatt

Attributed to

A woman bends over a basin of water on a washstand in this vertical, colored print. The woman is angled away from us so only her ear and the curve of her forehead are visible beyond her hunched shoulder. Her upper body is bare, her striped dress having been unfastened so it hangs around her waist. Light reflects off her dark hair, which is tied up and back. She cups her hands in the basin. Two bottles sit at the back corner of the washstand, and a mirror reflects the top of her head. A handled pitcher sits at the front left corner of the boxy washstand. The artist signed the work in graphite under the lower right corner, “Mary Cassatt etat.” Another inscription to the left reads “E1005.”

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    drypoint and aquatint in black on wove paper

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    plate: 36.83 × 26.35 cm (14 1/2 × 10 3/8 in.)
    sheet: 44.5 x 31.3 cm (17 1/2 x 12 5/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1946.21.91

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Mathews and Shapiro 1989, no. 10, ii/iv

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Robert Hartshorne, New Jersey; Lessing J. Rosenwald, Jenkintown, PA; acquired 1946 by the National Gallery of Art

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1948

  • American Graphic Art from the Eighteenth Century to the Present Day, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1948.

1950

  • Prints by Mary Cassatt. Rosenwald Collection and gift of Miss Elisabeth Achelis, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1950.

1951

  • Mary Cassatt and her Parisian friends, Pasadena Art Institute, CA, 1951, no. 41.

1973

  • Mary Cassatt, 1844-1926, Newport Harbour Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA; Santa Barbara Museum, CA, 1973-1974.

1989

  • Mary Cassatt: The Color Prints, National Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Williams College Museum of Art, Williamston, MA, 1989-1990, no. 10-II, repro.

2025

  • Mary Cassatt at Work, Philadelphia Museum of Art; and Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young, Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 2024-2025 (shown only in San Francisco).

Bibliography

1979

  • Breeskin, Adelyn Dohme. Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Graphic Work. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979, no. 149, ii/v.

1989

  • Mathews, Nancy Mowll, and Barbara Stern Shapiro. Mary Cassatt: The Color Prints. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1989, no. 10, ii/iv.

2024

  • Thompson, Jennifer A. and Garber, Laurel, editors. Mary Cassatt at Work. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young, Legion of Honor, San Francisco; Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2024: 290.

Inscriptions

lower right in graphite: Mary Cassatt / etat

Wikidata ID

Q65081057

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