The Bath

The Bath is a seminal color print created by Mary Cassatt between 1890 and 1891. This profound American work exemplifies the artist's deep engagement with highly sophisticated graphic techniques, utilizing color drypoint, softground etching, and aquatint applied to delicate Japanese paper. Produced during the period spanning from 1876 to 1900, this piece reflects the late nineteenth-century international interest in Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints, which deeply influenced Cassatt's compositional choices.

Cassatt, one of the few American women associated with the French Impressionists, dedicated much of her career to intimate depictions of women's private lives, particularly the universal and often unsentimental bond between mother and child. The domestic subject matter of this print is rendered with broad planes of color, flattened perspective, and clear outlines, techniques directly borrowed from the Japanese masters she studied while preparing for her first solo print exhibition.

Unlike many of her contemporaries who focused solely on black-and-white etchings, Cassatt often mixed multiple printmaking methods to achieve varied textures and saturated hues in her graphic work. This process demanded remarkable technical skill in combining softground etching for delicate tonal areas and drypoint for fine, precise lines, resulting in highly graphic images visually distinct from her oil paintings. The technical complexity of creating these color prints was immense, requiring the careful registration of multiple plates to layer the inks precisely, ensuring fidelity across the edition.

Cassatt’s dedication to mastering this intricate process established her as one of the most important graphic artists of her era. This enduring image is classified as a major work within the history of American art and is held in the prestigious collection of the National Gallery of Art, where it serves as an exemplary model of late nineteenth-century artistic innovation and cross-cultural influence.