Mary Cassatt, Woman Bathing (La Toilette), 1890–91

I find this scene of a woman bathing full of intimacy. But also privacy, as if we’ve just stumbled into her space, unsure of whether we should be here or not. The woman’s long, smooth, nude back is turned towards us, while her bottom half is covered in striped cloth — a dress undone, with sleeves dangling by her sides…

Her face is concealed — both to us and in her reflection in the mirror — bringing an air of mystery as we catch her in action, dipping her hands into the cerulean water, about to splash her face, and look up…

This is Mary Cassatt’s Woman Bathing (La Toilette) from 1890–91. To me, Cassatt is most notable for her charming paintings of mothers and children, swept up in a loose, feathery style evocative of her Impressionist contemporaries. Here, however, is an example of one of her aquatints — a printmaking method reminiscent of watercolor-like effects.

Aquatints were especially popular in Japan. A year prior to making this work, Cassatt saw an exhibition of more than 700 Japanese prints in Paris. These became popular thanks to new trade links between Japan and the West in the mid-1800s, which hadn’t existed for centuries, owing to Japanese isolationism, which was a response to unfair Western trade practices. The Impressionists were especially influenced by the prints, and would draw from their cropped compositions, flat shapes, and skill with color.

Cassatt herself was a collector of Japanese prints. Looking closely at this work, we can see where she’s drawn inspiration from them. The flat-shaped jug in the foreground, the floral-patterned floor that’s tilted and slightly off-perspective, and the block colors — the dusty pink on the dress, turquoise background, and diluted umber on the cupboard.

Mary Cassatt was born in the US in 1844 to a supportive family who took her on trips to France and encouraged her art making. She arrived in Paris in 1866, and exhibited at four of the eight Impressionist exhibitions. These were organized outside of the French Royal Academy and paved the way for a new style of art.

While many male Impressionists painted landscapes or other outdoor subjects, setting up their studios outside (thanks to recent inventions like the paint tube), women were restricted. They often painted indoor scenes featuring other women, capturing the essence of what it was like to be a woman in the 19th century. And it’s this that we see in this work.

Woman Bathing (La Toilette) earned Cassatt widespread acclaim. So much so that in 1976, it set the record for the highest price paid at auction for a print by an American artist, regardless of gender.