How to Read Paintings: The Child’s Bath by Mary Cassatt

An intimate portrait by an American female Impressionist

The Child’s Bath (1893) by Mary Cassatt. Oil on canvas. The Art Institute of Chicago. Image source The Art Institute of Chicago (open access)

The Child’s Bath shows a small child propped up on a woman’s lap — with the child’s feet being bathed in a bowl of water. One senses that the water is not cold but perhaps lukewarm so as not to sting the child’s toes.