Woman Bathing

Woman Bathing by Mary Cassatt: Mary Cassatt began a series of color prints in 1890 that demonstrate her close study of Japanese color woodblock prints. In Woma…

What to notice

Look at the cropped back and raised arm, then at the wallpaper and basin around them; Cassatt makes a private routine feel immediate without staging a formal pose.

Discover

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 le…