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Mary Cassatt The Bath, 1892 Oil on Canvas, 39 x 26 The Art Institute of Chicago Mary Cassatt's masterpiece, The Bath, is a profound representation of a very tender and intimate moment shared between a mother and child; of nurturing care and innocent trust. Romanticizing maternity with purity and honesty, the artist depicts the mother engaged in the act of bathing her child in a white, purple rimmed basin. The two are seated on the floor with the child held in the lap of her mother. The pictures elevated vantage point pitches forward the planes, allowing the viewer to observe, but not participate in, the scene, thereby adding force to the complete absorption of the mother with child, of their interlocking gestures, of their focus on each other and the task at hand (May). The woman looks down toward the basin, in which she places the childs right foot. Her gestures are fully natural and routine, but they also communicate her tender concern for the childs well being.
The childs other foot rests nonchalantly in the basin. The child gazes downward intently, absorbed in the action of her mother, she is quiet and calm, assured in an embrace of maternal care and competence (Getlein). The child wears a white towel, wrapped around her waste, beyond which she is naked. The solid patterning of the mothers dress contrasts with the little girls vulnerable nudity.
The wide stripes of the dress, in lavender, green, and white dominate the whole center area of the composition; playing against the little girls pastel body and standing out from the dimmer tones of the carpet below, wallpaper to the pictures left, and the painted bureau behind (Kleiner et al). The right arms of both figures and both the childs chubby little legs are as straight as the lines in the mothers dress (Getlein). The mother holds the child firmly in her lap with her left hand; her arm curving behind the child, hidden from view, with only the hand visible at the childs waist. The child reaches back wither her left arm, bolding her mothers knee, as if simultaneously bracing herself, and pushing off forward into the water. The hands of both meet and are alike at the waist of one and the knee of the other (Getlein). Both the mother and the child appear to the viewer in a state of complete absorption.
The childs downcast gaze conveys a sense intense curiosity and wonder as she watches her mothers hand. The pairs heads meet, reinforcing the sense of absorption; their hair together, the mothers forehead touches that of the child and her chin touches her daughters shoulder. Rather than glance at each other, they gaze in the same direction, looking together at their paired reflection in the basin of water and the childs small foot. Enveloped in a moment of mutual absorption, they appear to the viewer to exist as a single entity (Getlein). Works Cited Getlein, Frank.
Mary Cassatt: Paintings, and Drawings. New York, NY: Abbeville Press Publishers. 1980. Kleiner, Fred S. , et al. Gardners Art Through The Ages. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt College Publishers, 2001.
May, Sally Ruth. The Art Institute of Chicago: The Essential Guide. Chicago, IL: The Art Institute of Chicago. 1997.
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Research essay sample on The Bath Mary Cassatt
