The Bath

The Bath by Mary Cassatt (American, 1844-1926), produced in collaboration with printer Leroy (French, active 1876-1900), is a highly sophisticated color print created between 1890 and 1891. Cassatt employed a demanding combination of color drypoint, aquatint, and softground etching, utilizing two separate copper plates to achieve exceptional tonal variation and depth. The technique of printing à la poupée, where ink is manually applied to the plate surfaces using wadded fabric before passing through the press, allowed Cassatt to achieve a rich, painterly effect rarely seen in late 19th-century prints.

This piece exemplifies Cassatt’s dedicated focus on the private lives of women, particularly depicting the tender, intimate bonds between a mother and child in their domestic environment. Inspired heavily by the recent influx of Japanese woodblock prints to Europe, Cassatt adapted their aesthetic principles, including the flattening of space and the use of bold contour lines, to redefine this traditional subject matter. The subtle variations in tone achieved through the aquatint provide texture while the drypoint enhances the intimate details of the figures’ forms.

Cassatt developed a significant series of ten major color prints during this period, and The Bath is often considered the defining achievement of this technical experimentation. Due to the meticulous registration and manual inking required for each impression, these works are prized examples of modern graphic arts. This impression remains a vital component of the Art Institute of Chicago’s esteemed collection, securing Cassatt’s legacy as a master printmaker from the United States working at the height of the Impressionist movement.