derhen’s

  

This is an oil on canvas by Mary Cassat, an American painter from the 19th century, who was very influenced by impressionist artists like Degas, Monet and Renoir.

 It is 100cm wide by 66cm long and you can see it at the  “Art Institute of Chicago”

It is called “The Bath” and the scene is set in a bedroom. In the foreground you can see a white jug/bassin full of water, on a red battery rug. In the middle-ground, the woman is holding a child on her knees and washing her foot.

In the background, there is the wall, it’s covered with a flowery wallpaper and a painted chest of drowers.

The composition is made of curves and circles like, for instance, the jug and the bassin, the towel and the girl’s waist and the circle formed by the two caracters. Their heads are touching and the woman is embracing the child, this is the subject of the painting

We canm by the paint, say that the two caracters are a Mother with her daughter, so the paint only shows their intimacy, their mutal love, and the confidence of a daughter with her mother.