Woman Bathing

Mary Cassatt

National Gallery of Art

A pale-skinned woman bends over a basin of water on a washstand in this vertical, colored print. The woman is angled away from us so only her ear and the curve of her forehead are visible beyond her hunched shoulder. Her upper body is bare, her dress having been unfastened so it hangs around her waist. The dress is striped with frosty green, shell pink, and the cream white of the paper. Light gleams on her dark brown hair, which is tied up and back. She cups her hands in the light blue water of the white basin. Two bottles sit at the back corner of the washstand, and a mirror reflects the top of her head. The fawn-brown washstand is boxy, and a handled white pitcher painted with muted pink flowers is at the front left corner, which is closest to us. The wall beyond the washstand is pale, arctic blue, as is the carpet, which is also patterned with pea -green leaves. The artist signed the work in graphite under the lower right corner, “Mary Cassatt.”