Mary Cassatt
A Child's Bath1880

On view:

Geffen Galleries

Impressionist oil painting of a woman in white cradling a rosy-cheeked baby beside a blue-and-white ceramic basin, with loose brushwork

Artist or Maker: Mary Cassatt
United States, Pennsylvania, Allegheny City, active France, 1844-1926
Title: A Child's Bath
Place Made: United States
Date Made: 1880
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Canvas: 39 1/2 × 25 7/8 in. (100.33 × 65.72 cm) Framed: 47 15/16 × 34 5/8 × 4 3/4 in. (121.76 × 87.95 × 12.07 cm)
Credit Line: Mrs. Fred Hathaway Bixby Bequest
Accession Number: M.62.8.14
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: American Art
Curatorial Notes: The only American-born artist officially associated with the French Impressionists, Cassatt showed in four of the group’s eight exhibitions, displaying this work in their fifth show in 1880. The painting is among her earliest depictions of modern women and children—a subject that earned her international recognition. Compressed into the picture’s foreground, the two figures are composed of rapidly applied brushtrokes, and the quickness of Cassatt’s execution reinforces the fleeting nature of this intimate moment.
Provenance: The artist, 1880-c. 1898/1900 § Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Atmore Pope, Cleveland, and Farmington, Conn., by 1900 § Mrs. John W. Riddle (Theodate Pope Riddle; by descent), Farmington, Conn., by 1923 to 1945(?) § With M. Knoedler & Co., New York, by 1945 to 1946 § Mrs. Fred Hathaway Bixby, Long Beach, Calif, 1946 - 62.
Alfred Atmore Pope (1842–1913) and Ada Lunette Pope (née Brooks, 1844–1920), Cleveland and Farmington, Connecticut, by 1900, by descent to; Theodate Pope Riddle (1867–1946), Farmington, Connecticut. [John Levy Gallery, New York, by 25 June 1944 in partnership with]; [M. Knoedler & Co., New York, sold November 1946 to]; Florence Elizabeth “Polly” Bixby (née Green, 1876–1961), Long Beach, bequeathed 1962 to; LACMA.
Selected Bibliography: Mary Cassatt: A Brush with Independence. Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association, Inc.: 2001.
University of California, San Francisco. Brochure: Embracing Our Future: The Brave New World of Children's Health. San Francisco: University of California, San Francisco, 2001.
Bray, Dr. Xavier. Mujeres Impresionistas: La otra mirada. Bilbao, Spain: Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2001.
Beckett, Sister Wendy. Sister Wendy's American Collection, Toby Eady Associates, ed. Harper Collins Publishers, 2000.
Price, Lorna. Masterpieces from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1988.
Fort, Ilene Susan and Michael Quick. American Art: a Catalogue of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991.
Harris, Ann Sutherland and Linda Nochlin. Women Artists: 1550-1950. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1976.
Breeskin, Adelyn Dohme. Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Graphic Work. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979.
The Impressionists and The Salon (1874-1886) Honoring the Centennial of the First Impressionist Exhibition: California Collections. Riverside: The Regents of the University of California, 1974.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2003.
American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009
Kim, Woollin, Jinmyung Kim, and Songhyuk Yang, eds. Art Across America. Seoul: National Museum of Korea, 2013.
Miller, Angela, and Chris McAuliffe, eds. America: Painting a Nation. Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2013.
Mathews, Nancy Mowll, ed. Cassatt: a Retrospective. New York: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 1996.
Vischer, Theodora, editor. Close-up: Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Lotte Laserstein, Frida Kahlo, Alice Neel, Marlene Dumas, Cindy Sherman, Elizabeth Peyton. Riehen/Basel: Fondation Beyeler, 2021.
Thompson, Jennifer A., and Laurel Garber. Mary Cassatt at Work. Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2024.
Isaacson, Joel. The Crisis of Impressionism, 1878-1882. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Museum of Art, 1980.

Mary Cassatt
A Child's Bath1880

On view:

Geffen Galleries

Artist or Maker: Mary Cassatt
United States, Pennsylvania, Allegheny City, active France, 1844-1926
Title: A Child's Bath
Place Made: United States
Date Made: 1880
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Canvas: 39 1/2 × 25 7/8 in. (100.33 × 65.72 cm) Framed: 47 15/16 × 34 5/8 × 4 3/4 in. (121.76 × 87.95 × 12.07 cm)
Credit Line: Mrs. Fred Hathaway Bixby Bequest
Accession Number: M.62.8.14
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: American Art
Curatorial Notes: The only American-born artist officially associated with the French Impressionists, Cassatt showed in four of the group’s eight exhibitions, displaying this work in their fifth show in 1880. The painting is among her earliest depictions of modern women and children—a subject that earned her international recognition. Compressed into the picture’s foreground, the two figures are composed of rapidly applied brushtrokes, and the quickness of Cassatt’s execution reinforces the fleeting nature of this intimate moment.
Provenance: The artist, 1880-c. 1898/1900 § Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Atmore Pope, Cleveland, and Farmington, Conn., by 1900 § Mrs. John W. Riddle (Theodate Pope Riddle; by descent), Farmington, Conn., by 1923 to 1945(?) § With M. Knoedler & Co., New York, by 1945 to 1946 § Mrs. Fred Hathaway Bixby, Long Beach, Calif, 1946 - 62.
Alfred Atmore Pope (1842–1913) and Ada Lunette Pope (née Brooks, 1844–1920), Cleveland and Farmington, Connecticut, by 1900, by descent to; Theodate Pope Riddle (1867–1946), Farmington, Connecticut. [John Levy Gallery, New York, by 25 June 1944 in partnership with]; [M. Knoedler & Co., New York, sold November 1946 to]; Florence Elizabeth “Polly” Bixby (née Green, 1876–1961), Long Beach, bequeathed 1962 to; LACMA.
Selected Bibliography: Mary Cassatt: A Brush with Independence. Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association, Inc.: 2001.
University of California, San Francisco. Brochure: Embracing Our Future: The Brave New World of Children's Health. San Francisco: University of California, San Francisco, 2001.
Bray, Dr. Xavier. Mujeres Impresionistas: La otra mirada. Bilbao, Spain: Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2001.
Beckett, Sister Wendy. Sister Wendy's American Collection, Toby Eady Associates, ed. Harper Collins Publishers, 2000.
Price, Lorna. Masterpieces from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1988.
Fort, Ilene Susan and Michael Quick. American Art: a Catalogue of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991.
Harris, Ann Sutherland and Linda Nochlin. Women Artists: 1550-1950. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1976.
Breeskin, Adelyn Dohme. Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Graphic Work. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979.
The Impressionists and The Salon (1874-1886) Honoring the Centennial of the First Impressionist Exhibition: California Collections. Riverside: The Regents of the University of California, 1974.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2003.
American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009
Kim, Woollin, Jinmyung Kim, and Songhyuk Yang, eds. Art Across America. Seoul: National Museum of Korea, 2013.
Miller, Angela, and Chris McAuliffe, eds. America: Painting a Nation. Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2013.
Mathews, Nancy Mowll, ed. Cassatt: a Retrospective. New York: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 1996.
Vischer, Theodora, editor. Close-up: Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Lotte Laserstein, Frida Kahlo, Alice Neel, Marlene Dumas, Cindy Sherman, Elizabeth Peyton. Riehen/Basel: Fondation Beyeler, 2021.
Thompson, Jennifer A., and Laurel Garber. Mary Cassatt at Work. Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2024.
Isaacson, Joel. The Crisis of Impressionism, 1878-1882. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Museum of Art, 1980.