The Bath

1890-1891

Mary Cassatt

Artist, American, 1844 - 1926

Mary Cassatt

A woman kneels to test the water in a freestanding bathtub with one hand as she braces a nude child against her knee with the other in this vertical, colored print. The people and objects are outlined lightly with brown for the bodies and black for the woman’s clothing. Both the woman and baby’s hair are incised with delicate black lines. The woman’s hair is pulled back from a high forehead, and she has a straight nose, pursed lips, and a slight double chin. Her long-sleeved, floor-length dress has a narrow collar and is pleated across the chest and at the cuff we can see. The dress is filled in with a field of bright lemon yellow and patterned with a floral design. The baby turns toward the woman’s body and hangs their arms over her bracing hand. The baby has short, wispy, black hair with delicate facial features, a rotund belly, and satisfyingly pudgy rolls on the legs. The tub and lines indicating water are indigo blue. There are some smudges across the paper, especially at the edges.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    color drypoint, softground etching, and aquatint on wove paper

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    plate: 31.9 x 24.9 cm (12 9/16 x 9 13/16 in.)
    sheet: 36.7 x 27.5 cm (14 7/16 x 10 13/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1943.3.2760

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Mathews and Shapiro 1989, no. 5, xvi/xvii

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Lessing J. Rosenwald, Jenkintown, PA; acquired 1943 by the National Gallery of Art

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1958

  • Color Etchings and Aquatints by Mary Cassatt, Ogunquit Museum, ME, 1958.

1963

  • Prints and Drawings by Mary Cassatt, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1963.

1964

  • Prints by Mary Cassatt, organized by the Smithsonian Travelling Exhibition Service and circulated to 10 venues (Vassar College Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY; Norton Gallery & School of Art, Palm Beach, FL; University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI; Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS; Charles & Emma Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH; Columbus Gallery of Fine Art, Columbus, OH; Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA; and A.D. White Museum of Art at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY), 1964-1965.

1967

  • Mother and Child, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Manitoba, Canada, 1967, no. 34.

1973

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

  • Whistler, Cassatt and Hassam: three American printmakers, Rutgers University Art Gallery, New Brunswick, NJ, 1973.

2011

  • Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The National Art Center, Tokyo; Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto, 2011, unnumbered catalogue (shown only in Tokyo and Kyoto).

Bibliography

1967

  • Breeskin, Adelyn, and Donald H. Karshan. The Graphic Art of Mary Cassatt. New York, Museum of Graphic Art, 1967, p. 26, no. 51.

1979

  • Breeskin, Adelyn Dohme. Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Graphic Work. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979, no. 143, x/xi.

1989

  • Mathews, Nancy Mowll, and Barbara Stern Shapiro. Mary Cassatt: The Color Prints. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1989, no. 5, xvi/xvii.

2010

  • Jones, Kimberly A. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 2010.

Inscriptions

lower left in graphite: X

Markings

stamped verso in black ink: LJR / National Gallery of Art

Wikidata ID

Q64960370

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