Woman Bathing

The aquatint print Woman Bathing is Mary Cassatt's interpretation of a woman's private ablution. Apparently unaware of being observed, the bather is seen from behind, her upper body exposed above the skirt of her gown of a striking green, pink, and white striped pattern as she stands hunched over a bowl of water set on a washstand. A mirror reflects part of the woman's lowered head, poised to receive the splash of water from her cupped hands. Against the corresponding deep blue expanse of the background wall Cassatt contrasted the pale flesh of the woman's back and the soft brown of the wooden cabinet. At the lower left, set upon the lush floral-patterned carpet, is an Asian-style white ceramic water pitcher, decorated with a floral motif in gold.

A stunning example of Cassatt's skill in aquatint combined with her extraordinary sense of color, Woman Bathing ranks as one of the most ravishing treatments of the intimate subject of a woman bathing in private. In choosing it, Cassatt may well have been inspired by the many treatments of the subject by her friend and French artistic colleague Edgar Degas (1834–1917), as well as by examples in Japanese woodcut prints, which she had long admired. Following her visit to a major Paris exhibition of Japanese prints in 1890, Cassatt embarked on an ambitious series of ten color aquatints, of which Woman Bathing is one. In the difficult task of printing the aquatints she was assisted by an otherwise unidentified Monsieur Leroy, a Paris-based professional printer, as she noted on this impression. The aquatint group also includes The Bath (TF 1994.4), In the Omnibus (TF 1999.27), Afternoon Tea Party (TF 1994.13).