Whitney Fetzer
Eng101-MT5
Sept. 16, 2004
Museum Reflection 3
I chose to study Mary Cassatt’s piece of art entitled The Bath. Created in 1891, Cassatt’s 12 3/8 x 9 5/8 inch was done by soft-ground etching with aquatint and drypoint on paper. The American artist grew a fascination for printmaking after viewing the large-scale Japanese prints exhibition located in Paris’s Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In result, Cassatt created a series of ten color aquatints in which The Bath was the first. She has a reoccurring theme of mothers and their children. The Japanese exhibition had an immense effect on her as an artist in not only the subject matter but in technique as well. Cassatt was overwhelmingly influenced by the Japanese exhibition.
Cassatt illustrates a chubby child being bathed
by their mother who is dressed in a light yellow dress with intricate leaf
designs. The mother is holding her child with one arm while the other is sunken
in the tub’s sky-blue water. Cassatt portrays the individuals and bath as
two-dimensional shapes. This is unique when it comes to ar
tistic technique
considering in Western art, it is tradition to create depth by tonal variations
and shading. The seemingly simple piece of art is actually very complicated
indeed. It required a whole day of preparation just to ink and reprint the
plates for each of the impressions, which were then impressed onto paper.
Cassatt used one plate for the tonal area and another for dry point lines.
It is a mystery as to the ethnicity of the mother and her child (some argue they are European, while others claim they are Asian). At first glance, I would have to say they seem Asian to me. One of the reasons I love this piece of art is because I have a love for Oriental style. I have tons of Oriental paintings and statues and random knick-knacks in my room. In addition to my love for Asian-inspired things, another reason I love The Bath is because it reminds me of when I used to give my little sister baths. It encompasses memories of when my sister and I would spend those moments together acting goofy as she was getting cleaned. A sense of nostalgia comes to mind. This piece intrigues me. I am excited to view the work’s final impression up close and personal.
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Picture from the National Museum of Women in the Arts, DC. Artwork by Mary Cassatt (1891). |