Mary Cassat
Mary Cassat is an American painter from the 19th Century who was very much influenced by impressionists artists like Degas, Monet and Renoir. She made a painting called “The bath†that I’m going to introduce you.
This painting is 100 cm wide by 66 cm long and you can see it today at the Art Institute in Chicago. The scene of this painting is set in a bedroom.
 
In the foreground, there is a white jug and a basin full of water on a red pattern rug. In the middle ground, you can see a mother holding her child on her knees and gently washing her foot. In the background, ther is the wall covered with a flowery wallpaper and there also is a painted chest of drawers.
The composition is made of curves and circles, like for instance, the jug and the basin, the towel around the girl’s waist, and, the circle formed by the two characters. Their heads are touching and the mother is embrancing her daughter. The relationshop beteween them is the subject of this painting. It shows there intimacy, their mutual love and the girl’s confidence in her mother.
