The Child's Bath
A mother in a striped dress washes her child's feet in a basin. The high viewpoint and the juxtaposed patterns come from Japanese prints. Full commentary ↓
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The Child's Bath is an oil painting by Mary Cassatt (1893) in the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago. It measures 100.3 × 66.1 cm.
In the pictureA woman in a striped dress holds a child on her lap, supporting the child with one arm while washing the child's feet in a basin with the other hand. Both bow their heads to look at the water. The floral rug on the floor, the wallpaper pattern and the stripes of the dress overlap one another, and the viewpoint looks down from above. A water pitcher stands beside the basin.
BackgroundIt was painted in 1893. Cassatt was strongly influenced by an exhibition of Japanese prints she saw in Paris in 1890 and brought high viewpoints, flat patterns and bold outlines into her paintings. This picture is the result. Mother and child is a subject that easily turns sentimental, but Cassatt avoided sentimentality by making it a moment in which the two look at the same spot, absorbed in the same task.
Puzzle tipWith so many patterns, it is fun at 100 pieces or more. Start with the two faces, the basin and the water pitcher, then fill the striped dress by the direction of its stripes and the rug by the arrangement of its flowers. The wallpaper pieces are confusing because the pattern repeats, so leave them for last.
- Classification
- Painting
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 100.3 × 66.1 cm
- Credit line
- The Art Institute of Chicago, 1910.2
Source: The Art Institute of Chicago ↗
Stories about this work
- 17 Must-See Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago, from Seurat's Dots to American Gothic
Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day, Van Gogh's The Bedroom and Grant Wood's American Gothic. The stories of 17 must-see paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago, what to check before you go, and how to meet them first as puzzles.
