Mary Cassatt was an American born artist who lived in France during the late 19th century. She grew up from an affluent family and was exposed to European culture and art at a tender age. She started studying art at age 16, at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. The painting, “Child’s Bath 1893,” examines the motif used to explain her work. This essay will explain the iconography portrayed in Mary Cassatt’s oil canvas as well as the hues the artist choose to lead to her becoming a successful and respected artist.
The artist existed in an era when a woman’s social role was caring for children. Before the 18th century, children were seen as a burden, infringing on the life of women at courts or salons.[1] However, with the publication of Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the society started viewing women as domestic beings.[2] Emile campaigned for more intimate relationships between mothers and their children. Despite not having children of her own, Mary Cassatt perfected the technique of portraying young children in a naturalistic style. The role of women during the 19th century, comes out in the painting as caregivers, in charge of safeguarding the physical and emotional health of children.
Mrs. Potter Palmer, a businesswoman, and philanthropist invited Mary Cassatt in the women’s building at the world’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago to paint the south tympanum.[3] She was promoting the theme of modern women, as a tribute to women’s education, campaigning for women to engage more in pursuit of knowledge and learning. During this tribute, Mrs. Potter pointed out that the government had started acknowledging women. Mary Cassatt accepted, during the Columbian exposition that the role of women as a caregiver and a protector of children against upcoming health threats was changing, and it was about time for young women to dive into the pursuit of knowledge and science.
Edgar Degas was a lifelong friend of Mary Cassatt, as well as an influence on her work. Mary Cassatt often claimed that Degas’ Pastel was the turning point of her life.[4] Edgar Degas invited her to join the independent artist’s group, Impressionists in 1879. Like her, Edgar Degas portrayed women figures with the influence of Japanese woodblock prints. Unlike him, though, she did not sexualize women in her paintings. Degas captured beautiful young women as young dancers of ballet, which led to him being viewed as sexualizing female figures.[5] On the other hand, Mary depicted Edgar degas as judgmental, such that she restrained from showing her south tympanum painting while it was still work in progress. As a matter of fact, Degas gets quoted by Mary, saying that he cannot admit a modern woman can draw like that.[6]
Mary Cassatt uses woodblock printed from Tokugawa, Japan, a non-western influence that set her aside from other male contemporary artists. She first encountered this woodblock from at the World’s Exhibition in 1867. In a letter to her friend, she expressed than she has never experienced color so beautiful, as an illustration of the Japanese woodblocks. The woodblocks were direct, substantial, had a rich tone and a linear elegance that was impressive and inspirational to Cassatt, in such a way that enabled her to invent her technique and used them to convey her domestic scenes. These Japanese prints were popularly used for big audiences, were inexpensive, and helped the artist achieve contrast between light and dark, enabling his or her to caption emotional effect. Her style was unique as she played with traditional themes, patterns and outlines that were bold, not forgetting the flattened view on small canvas that directly projected the intimacy between a child and a mother and at the same time reflected aspects of the avant-garde and modernism.[7] The child’s bath demonstrates how the non-westerners viewed the ideal modern womanhood. In the absence of Japanese woodblock prints, Mary could not have acquired her greatness as a female artist or has emerged as an influence of feminists of the 20th century.
The Child’s Birth painting shows a private moment between a mother and her child absorbed in domestic activity. Their heads are touching, looking down with their arms interlocked. The two bodies interlocked form asymmetrical triangle, which is framed by the floral motif design of the room. The painting shows a child with chubby legs, sited off the lap of a mother wearing a striped dress, in sharp contrast with the circular washbasin, heads, and pitcher. The mother gently washes the small foot with one hand, as the other securely holds the child in her arms. The surroundings portray a painted chest of drawers, as well as flowered wallpaper and bits of decorative carpet defining the edges of composition that are cropped.[8] This child is beautifully rendered in a naturalistic way. At the same time, the mother’s body is covered in a long dress, which is suggestive of the woman’s body, portraying how inferior the importance of a mother was depicted over the presence of a child.
Additionally, the importance of the child over the mother is further illustrated by Cassatt’s detailed capture of the child in the picture, placing her as the center of attention, as compared to that of the mother. The Impressionists group that Cassatt belonged to used loose unblended brushwork to give paintings a naturalistic appearance. In the Child’s Bath painting, however, the brushstrokes appear to have been done vigorously, with the aim of making the art beautiful and appealing. The picture is not done in much detail, as it is noticeable that the ears of the mother do not have anatomical information, and one is unable to tell what time of day the bath scene is occurring.[9]
Mary was disadvantaged, like all other female artists, and lacked early training that was accorded to male artists. Although she came from a well-off Pennsylvania family and enjoyed a privileged childhood, however, her father refused to sponsor her artwork and claimed he would rather see his daughter dead than see her living abroad as ‘bohemian.'[10] During this period, institutional discrimination was rampant, and discriminated a lot of women, and disadvantaged them from succeeding in the world of art. When institutional art education begun, however, women were prohibited from painting from nude models. As a result, women could not create high commissions and were confined to more inward-looking paintings. Cassatt used families and female friends as her models engaging in social scenes such as reading or knitting. Mary’s personal life can be said to project the societal changed occurring in the 19th century. She was an unmarried woman, and never had children of her own.
Indeed Mary Cassatt is said to have paved ways for other female artists. Although she faced disadvantages as a female artist, the introduction of Japanese woodblock prints to Parisian markets saw her rise as a revolutionary artist, on how she represented women in art. Her choice of women models as loving mothers, educated women, and independent women from men further illustrates this. The Child’s Bath demonstrates how modern womanhood was idealized and highlighted by the non-western elements of shapes that were contoured, colors, and patterns that were presented in a repetitive way. Cassatt indeed influenced generations of suffragettes and the 20th-century feminists.
Bibliography
- Mary S. The Child’s Bath. 1893. American Art, Gallery 273, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL. In About This Artwork. http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/111442Beth, Zucker Steven. “Video.” https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/avant-garde-france/impressionism/a/cassatt-the-coiffure
- Eliska (2018) “Mary S. Cassatt, The Child’s Bath,” Inter-Text: An Undergraduate Journal for Social Sciences and Humanities: Vol. 1, Article 4. https://publications.lakeforest.edu/inter-text/vol1/iss1/4
- Broude, “Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman or The Cult of True Womanhood?” Woman’s Art Journal 21, no. 2 (2000): 36, doi:10.2307/1358749, 14
- Potter, “Women Caring for Children In “The Floating World” Emerging Infectious Diseases 12, no. 11 (2006): 1808-1809, doi:10.3201/eid1211.ac1211
[1] Mrackova, Eliska (2018) “Mary S. Cassatt, The Child’s Bath,” Inter-Text: An Undergraduate Journal for Social Sciences and Humanities: Vol. 1, Article 4. https://publications.lakeforest.edu/inter-text/vol1/iss1/4
[2] Mrackova, “Mary S. Cassatt, The Child’s Bath,” Inter-Text: An Undergraduate Journal for Social Sciences and Humanities
[3] Polyxeni Potter, “Women Caring for Children In “The Floating World” Emerging Infectious Diseases 12, no. 11 (2006): 1808-1809, doi:10.3201/eid1211.ac1211
[4] Polyxeni, “Women Caring for Children In “The Floating World” Emerging Infectious Diseases
[5] Mrackova, 6.
[6] Ibid.
[7]Harris, Beth, Zucker, and Steven. “Video.” https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/avant-garde-france/impressionism/a/cassatt-the-coiffure
[8] Cassatt, Mary S. The Child’s Bath. 1893. American Art, Gallery 273, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL. In About This Artwork. http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/111442
[9] Cassatt, Mary S. The Child’s Bath. 1893. American Art, Gallery 273, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
[10] Norma Broude, “Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman or The Cult of True Womanhood?” Woman’s Art Journal 21, no. 2 (2000): 36, doi:10.2307/1358749, 14