{"id":1519,"date":"2026-05-29T13:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T11:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/horscadre.paris\/bathing-the-child-motherhood-reimagined-through-japanese-prints\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T22:43:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T20:43:43","slug":"bathing-the-child-motherhood-reimagined-through-japanese-prints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/horscadre.paris\/en\/bathing-the-child-motherhood-reimagined-through-japanese-prints\/","title":{"rendered":"Bathing the Child \u2014 Motherhood Reimagined Through Japanese Prints"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Paris, Durand-Ruel Galleries, November 1893.<\/strong> Mary Cassatt opened her first major solo exhibition in Paris<\/strong>. Forty-nine works were hung on the gallery walls at the dealer\u2019s space on Rue Le Peletier<\/strong> in the 9th arrondissement. Among them is a previously unseen vertical oil-on-canvas painting,<\/strong> measuring 100.3 centimeters high by 66.1 centimeters wide<\/strong>. The title on the label reads *La Toilette de l\u2019enfant<\/em>*. It is catalog number 1<\/strong> and serves as the opening work<\/strong> of the exhibition. <\/p>\n\n

The painting depicts an intimate scene<\/strong>: a young woman, seen in a three-quarter view from behind, wearing a dress with vertical white and lavender stripes<\/strong>, is holding a naked little girl<\/strong> on her lap. The mother leans her face toward the child. With her right hand, she dips a sponge into a white porcelain basin<\/strong>. With her left hand, she holds the<\/strong> child\u2019s right foot<\/strong>. The child, completely absorbed<\/strong>, looks down at her own foot in the water, fascinated by the gesture. <\/p>\n\n

The work is viewed from above<\/strong> \u2014a bird\u2019s-eye view that places the viewer above the scene<\/strong>, as if suspended in midair. The limited color palette<\/strong> combines off-whites (the child\u2019s skin, the basin), olive greens (the floral-patterned carpet), lavender tones (the striped dress), and pale pinks (a bouquet). All the predictable sentimentality of the subject<\/strong> \u2014the mother bathing her daughter\u2014is carefully avoided<\/strong> by the composition. <\/p>\n\n

This article traces the origins ofMary Cassatt\u2019s most famous work<\/strong>,the decisive influence of Japanese prints<\/strong> on its conception, the public health context<\/strong> of the Parisian hygiene campaigns of the 1880s and 1890s\u2014which explain why bathing became a modern subject in painting\u2014its legacy<\/strong> in 20th-century Western mother-and-child painting, and the museum journey<\/strong> that took *The Child\u2019s Bath*<\/em> from Cassatt\u2019s Paris studio to the Art Institute of Chicago, where it has been housed since 1910.<\/p>\n\n

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1893 \u2014 Mary Cassatt, age 49, at the height of her artistic career<\/h2>\n\n

By 1893, Mary Cassatt had reached the height of her artistic maturity<\/strong>. She was forty-nine years old<\/strong>. She had been living in Paris for twenty years. She had participated in four of the eight Impressionist exhibitions<\/strong> (1879, 1880, 1881, 1886). She was recognized by her peers\u2014Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, and Berthe Morisot. She had forged close relationships with Parisian art dealers, notably Paul Durand-Ruel<\/strong>, who had been championing Impressionism for twenty years. <\/p>\n\n

But 1893 was also a turning<\/strong> point in her personal<\/strong> life. Her sister Lydia Cassatt<\/strong>, her favorite model in the 1870s and 1880s, had died eleven years earlier (1882). Her parents had also passed away (Robert Simpson Cassatt<\/strong> in 1891, and Katherine Kelso Cassatt<\/strong> a little earlier). Mary now lived alone in Paris<\/strong>, dividing her time between her apartment at 10 rue de Marignan<\/strong> (8th arrondissement, where she had lived since 1887) and the Ch\u00e2teau de Beaufresne<\/strong> in Mesnil-Th\u00e9ribus, which she had purchased the previous year. <\/p>\n\n

She never married. She never had children. A historical paradox<\/strong>: the painter who devoted most of her work to depicting motherhood<\/strong> was not a mother herself. She painted what she observed\u2014her nieces<\/strong>, her sisters-in-law<\/strong>, her friends\u2019 children<\/strong>, and the professional models<\/strong> she paid. <\/p>\n\n

Three years earlier, in the spring of 1890<\/strong>, a fateful visit transformed her painting.The exhibition of Japanese prints<\/strong> held atthe \u00c9cole nationale des Beaux-Arts<\/strong> in Paris was a major aesthetic shock<\/strong> for Mary Cassatt. More than a thousand prints<\/strong> by the masters ofukiyo-e<\/strong> \u2014Utamaro, Toyokuni, Hokusai, Hiroshige, and Sharaku\u2014were on display there. Cassatt visited the exhibition several times, accompanied notably by Berthe Morisot and Eug\u00e8ne Manet<\/strong>. According to a letter she wrote to Berthe Morisot shortly afterward: <\/p>\n\n

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“Those of you who want to create color prints couldn’t possibly imagine anything more beautiful… You absolutely must see the Japanese.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\u2014 Mary Cassatt, letter to Berthe Morisot, 1890<\/em><\/p>\n\n

This quote is valuable for two reasons. First<\/strong>, it confirms a direct correspondence<\/strong> between the only two women of the Impressionist movement\u2014Morisot and Cassatt truly wrote<\/strong> to one another, discussed art, and shared their enthusiasm. Second<\/strong>, it marks the turning point<\/strong> in Cassatt\u2019s artistic practice toward a new aesthetic\u2014one that would culminate, three years later, in *The Child’s Bath*<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n

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The Painting \u2014 What It Depicts<\/h2>\n\n

The Child’s Bath<\/em><\/strong> is an oil on canvas<\/strong> measuring 100.3 \u00d7 66.1 centimeters<\/strong> \u2014 a slender, vertical format<\/strong>. This format is not insignificant: it precisely echoes the verticality<\/strong> of the Japanese prints<\/strong> that Cassatt had been collecting and studying for three years. <\/p>\n\n

The composition is built around three elements<\/strong> arranged in a visual triangle<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n

In the center-left<\/strong>, the mother<\/strong> (an unidentified model\u2014perhaps one of Cassatt\u2019s maids) is seated on a low chair, seen in a three-quarter rear view<\/strong>. She is wearing a dress with vertical white and lavender stripes<\/strong>, of a simple, contemporary bourgeois cut\u2014it is not a domestic negligee but an outfit for daytime wear<\/strong>. Her right arm<\/strong> reaches down toward the basin. Her left arm<\/strong> holds the child. <\/p>\n\n

In the center-right<\/strong>,the child<\/strong> (a girl, about 2\u20133 years old) is seated on her mother\u2019s lap; the mother stands naked<\/strong>, with her right foot<\/strong> submerged in the basin and her left foot folded over her other knee. Her white, simply modeled<\/strong> body contrasts sharply with the ornamental motifs surrounding her. The little girl tilts her head<\/strong> to look at her own foot in the water. <\/p>\n\n

In the foreground, at the bottom<\/strong>, is a round white porcelain basin<\/strong>, resting on a floral-patterned carpet. The water is barely suggested by a few touches of bluish-gray. The mother\u2019s gesture\u2014 the sponge dipped in, water scooped up<\/strong> \u2014is captured in its immediacy<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n

The color palette<\/strong> is intentionally limited and harmonious<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n