The theme of the naked female body attracted many painters, not to mention the impressionists, who sometimes “got stuck” in this subject beyond measure. Cassatt’s approach is interesting in this aspect, a woman with a freedom-loving American character, but decently educated, and living in the conditions of a bourgeois society, which assumed the observance of many rules in the behavior of a lady.

Cautiously, it seems, afraid to touch even the line behind which the viewer might have thoughts about vulgarity, Cassatt creates the engraving “Woman Bathing”, in which she depicts a slightly naked woman’s body for the first time.

The “eroticism” of the scene is limited to just the curve of the naked back. According to critics, such a puritanical approach to this theme is due to the fact that the artist was not interested in this topic, since she herself is a woman. Then, what dictated the need to hide the model’s face?

The engraving was created after Cassatt became acquainted with Japanese graphics and understood this trend in the mainstream of her work, and at the same time, she did not simply combine the Eastern tradition with the Western European style, but embodied an individual vision of this theme.

Represents one of the works that adorned a series of ten etchings exhibited at Durand-Ruel.

The theme of the naked female body attracted many painters, not to mention the impressionists, who sometimes “got stuck” in this subject beyond measure. Cassatt’s approach is interesting in this aspect, a woman with a freedom-loving American character, but decently educated, and living in the conditions of a bourgeois society, which assumed the observance of many rules in the behavior of a lady.

Cautiously, it seems, afraid to touch even the line behind which the viewer might have thoughts about vulgarity, Cassatt creates the engraving “Woman Washing Herself”, in which she depicts a slightly naked woman’s body for the first time.

The “eroticism” of the scene is limited to just the curve of the naked back. According to critics, such a puritanical approach to this theme is due to the fact that the artist was not interested in this topic, since she herself is a woman. Then, what dictated the need to hide the model’s face?

The engraving was created after Cassatt became acquainted with Japanese graphics and understood this trend in the mainstream of her work, and at the same time, she did not simply combine the Eastern tradition with the Western European style, but embodied an individual vision of this theme.

Represents one of the works that adorned a series of ten etchings exhibited at Durand-Ruel.