Woman Bathing (1890–91): Artwork and History

Woman Bathing (1890–91) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Mary Cassatt (American, 1844-1926) printed with Leroy (French, active 1876-1900).

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: Woman Bathing
• Date: 1890–91
• Artist attribution: Mary Cassatt (American, 1844-1926) printed with Leroy (French, active 1876-1900)
• Place of origin: United States
• Medium: Color aquatint and drypoint on off-white laid paper
• 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.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1932.1281

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection

View the original

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.