Mary Cassatt

Cassatt printed states, or variations on the same plate, primarily as a means of technical experimentation. Rather than developing the composition or working toward a resolved appearance, as most artists did with states, this image of a nude model-an unusual subject for a female artist at this time-was gradually abstracted in later states. Edgar Degas, an artist keenly interested in process, was the original owner of these two impressions, and described such works by Cassatt as “delightful graphic experiments.” Cassatt herself later remarked to her biographer, “[Etching] is what teaches you to draw.”

Although Mary Cassatt frequently worked with hired models for her scenes of mothers and children, depictions of the nude are rare within her work. This relatively early piece thus represents an adventurous choice of subject for Cassatt, and indeed for any female artist of her time. Cassatt settled in Paris in 1874 in order to pursue art-making with greater social freedom than America allowed at that time, but she nonetheless was subject to many of the conventions that had hindered the

careers of earlier women. In 1879 and 1880, Cassatt studied with Edgar Degas, whose many similar depictions of young women bathing may have inspired her to attempt the subject herself.