Woman Bathing

Prints and Drawings

1890–91

Mary Cassatt (American, 1844-1926)
printed with Leroy (French, active 1876-1900)

Mary Cassatt began a series of color prints in 1890 that demonstrate her close study of Japanese color woodblock prints. In Woman Bathing, Cassatt combined an intimate scene from daily life with dynamic formal elements—color, composition, pattern, and shape—inspired by similar choices in work by Japanese printmakers such as Utagawa Hiroshige. Here a woman stands over a wash basin, while the mirror catches part of her reflection. The multiple patterns—the green and pink stripes in her gown, the yellow and brown leaf decorations on the blue carpet, and the similar leaves on the jug—plus the blue-green wall and the curve of the woman’s exposed back infuse this quiet setting with a slightly off-kilter perspective.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Mary Cassatt
Title: Woman Bathing
Place: United States (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1890–1891
Medium: Color aquatint, with drypoint from three plates, on off-white laid paper
Inscriptions: Inscribed recto, lower right, in graphite: "Imprimée par l'artiste et M. Leroy / Mary Cassatt / (25 épreuves)"
Dimensions: Image/plate: 36.4 × 26.9 cm (14 3/8 × 10 5/8 in.); Sheet: 43.2 × 30.5 cm (17 1/16 × 12 1/16 in.)
Credit Line: Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
Reference Number: 1932.1281
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/13506/manifest.json

Adelyn D. Breeskin, The Graphic Work of Mary Cassatt (New York, 1948), p. 73, no. 148.
Nancy Mowll Matthews and Barbara Stern Shapiro, Mary Cassatt: The Color Prints, exh. cat. (New York, 1989), p. 134, cat. 10-IV, as “Woman Bathing.”
James N. Wood and Debra N. Mancoff, Treasures from The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 2000), p. 176 (ill.).
Mari Yoshihara, Embracing the East: White Women and American Orientalism (Oxford, 2003).

Baltimore Museum of Art, “Mary Cassatt,” January 7-February 10, 1936, p. 15, cat. 37.
Portland, Maine, Portland Museum of Art, “Miss Mary Cassatt: Impressionist from Pennsylvania,” May 17-July 1, 1979.
Williamstown, Mass., Williams College Museum of Art, “Mary Cassatt: The Color Prints,” November 25, 1989-January 21, 1990, p. 134, cat. 10-IV, as “Woman Bathing.”
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman,” October 10, 1998-January 10, 1999, pp. 283 and 323, cat. 61 (ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Undressed: The Fashion of Privacy”, June 22-September 29, 2013

The artist to Durand-Ruel [Chicago 1998]. Albert Roullier, Chicago [Chicago 1998]. Given by Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson, Chicago, to the Art Institute, 1932.

Mathews & Shapiro 10 IV/IV

Breeskin 148 V/V

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