The Child's Bath, 1893
Mary Cassatt
Oil on canvas
A mother tends a wriggling child, cropped tight in a Japanese-print composition.
Cassatt looks down on a woman gently washing a child's feet, their two heads bent close. The bold overhead angle and patterned surfaces show her love of Japanese prints. Few paintings capture everyday tenderness with such warmth and modern grace.
What you're looking at
Cassatt looks straight down at them, which flattens the whole scene and removes the horizon — a device she took from Japanese prints along with the pattern-on-pattern. The striped dress, the flowered wallpaper and the carpet all compete, and none of them recedes. Neither face is turned toward us. The picture is entirely about one hand holding a foot.
On a Frame TV
About 2:3, so use the matted file — the clean crop would take the basin at the bottom, and the picture is built on the line running from the two bent heads down to it. Mid-toned throughout with no deep darks, which makes it one of the easier works here to live with in a bright room.
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- 4K master file (3840px+)
- Samsung Frame TV–ready crop
- Phone wallpaper crop
- Printable art card
Public domain · one .zip, no sign-up
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Other works in the collection, starting with Mary Cassatt.
