The Bath

Mary Cassatt

National Gallery of Art

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 black, and both the woman and baby’s hair are incised with delicate black lines. The woman and baby’s skin are the white of the paper, and the rest of the background is smudged with smoke gray to show the texture of the paper. 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 butter 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.