Style Imitating Art: The Child’s Bath by Mary Cassatt
About Style Imitating Art
Style Imitating Art is hosted by Daenel of Living Outside the Stacks, Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, and Terri of Meadowtree Style. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as curator, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the curator by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the curator will share all of the submissions on her blog.
You do not have to be a blogger to join. You are invited to share your images on Instagram or other social media platforms or you can just play along and the host will share your photo. If you do share on social media, please spread the word by using #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt and also tag the hosts Salazar, Terri, and Daenel so they know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!
The Inspiration Artwork
The inspiration artwork was curated by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey. You can read why she has chosen this specific piece as her inspiration artwork here.
The Child’s Bath by Mary Cassatt (Oil on Canvas, 1893)
About the Artist: Mary Cassatt
Mary Stevenson Cassatt (May 22, 1844 – June 14, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, but she lived most of her adult life in France where she befriended French Impressionist artist Edgar Degas and began exhibiting her art works with the Impressionists. She has been described as “one of the three great ladies” of Impressionism and has also been compared to Degas for their shared depictions of movement, light, and design in the most modern sense.
Mary was born into an upper middle class family in the northern Pittsburgh area of Pennsylvania. She was one of seven children, but two of her siblings died in infancy. Her father, a successful stockbroker and land speculator, was a descendant of French Huguenot Jacques Cossart who settled in New Amsterdam in 1662. Her mother also came from a successful banking family with an educated and well read background which had a profound influence on Mary throughout her life. During Mary’s early childhood, her family relocated first to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and eventually moved to Philadelphia where Mary began her formal schooling at the age of 6.
Mary’s family viewed travel as an integral part of a child’s education and so she spent five years during her childhood traveling around Europe and visiting many of the capital cities gaining exposure to the art world of that time. At the age of 15, Mary began her art training at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, against her family’s objections to her becoming a professional artist. Much of their concern centered around her exposure to feminist ideas and the bohemian behavior of some of the male students at the academy. With about 20% of the students being female, Mary was able to build a network of friends who became lifelong advocates of equal gender rights. She eventually grew restless of the patronizing attitudes of the teachers and male students toward the female students so she left the academy to study all the old masters on her own.
In 1866 at the age of 22 with no art degree granted from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Mary moved to Paris with her mother and family friends to act as chaperones. Since women were not permitted to enroll at the École des Beaux-Arts, she applied for private study with the masters and was accepted as a pupil by Jean-Léon Gérôme, a highly esteemed teacher who was noted for his hyper-realistic technique and depiction of exotic subjects.
She supplemented her art training by becoming a “copyist” at the Louvre. Copyists were generally low paid women who painted copies of the museum’s artworks to sell.
In 1868, Mary’s painting A Mandoline Player was selected for exhibit at The Paris Salon. She was one of only two American women selected along with Elizabeth Jane Gardner.
In the summer of 1870 as the Franco-Prussian War was heating up, Mary returned to the United States, living with her family in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Her father continued to resist her chosen occupation and would only supply her with her basic necessities, refusing to assist with any art supplies or training. She exhibited two of her paintings in a New York gallery which received much adoration but no purchasers. As her frustrations grew, she considered giving up art altogether in the summer of 1871 but decided to first try her luck in Chicago where she lost some of her paintings in the Great Chicago Fire. Shortly afterward, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Pittsburgh commissioned Mary to paint two copies of works that were located in Italy. Granted enough money to cover her travel expenses and part of her boarding, Mary once again set off for Europe. By the autumn of 1871, Mary was finally beginning to make a name for herself in the art world as her paintings were garnering much interest and were being purchased by admirers.
Mary’s mother, father, and sister joined her in Paris in 1877. Mary valued her relationship with her sister Lydia very much as neither of them ever married. Mary viewed marriage as something that was incompatible with her art career. But there have been cases made that she also suffered from a narcissistic disturbance attributed to her never completing the recognition of herself as a separate person outside of the orbit of her mother. When her sister Lydia died in 1882, Mary was temporarily unable to work due to her grief.
Mary Cassatt was an outspoken advocate for women’s rights and had much impact in the depictions of the “New Woman” of the 19th Century. Although she did not make explicit political statements about women’s rights in her works, she openly objected to being stereotyped as a female artist and she supported the women’s suffrage movement.
The 1890’s were Mary Cassatt’s most creative and influential years as an artist. She had matured and became more diplomatic in her opinions making her a role model for up and coming young female artists of the time. However, in 1911, she was diagnosed with diabetes, rheumatism, neuralgia, and cataracts which greatly inhibited her ability to paint. She did not slow down with her work, but by 1914 she was nearly blind and was forced to give up painting. She died on June 14, 1926, at the age of 82 near Paris and is buried at her family’s vault in France.
About the Art: The Child’s Bath (1893)
Mary Cassatt painted The Child’s Bath in 1893 using oil on canvas. During the mid-1880’s, cholera outbreaks in France led to public health campaigns calling on people to bathe more regularly as bathing was starting to become recognized as a medical prevention measure against disease. At the same time, women were being encouraged to care for their children themselves using modern hygiene methods rather than employing caretakers.
In 1887, Mary began specializing in drypoints and pastels just as her interest in portraying the mother-child relationship became clear. Although the artist herself never explained her interest in this theme, she did express an intention to bring out the “psychological, sociological, and spiritual meaning” of everyday subjects and routines. The mother-child theme was very popular for French artists in the 1890’s but Mary’s depiction of this theme “revolutionized traditional religious subjects by casting them in a ‘secular and naturalistic’ context.”
In her depictions of mothers, however, Cassatt aggressively avoided using female nudes which she considered an appeal to men’s treatment of women as objects of erotic desire. Instead she chose to emphasize the “moral sensibility and totality” of women’s lives. She did, however, use nude depictions of children but with no sexual implications whatsoever. Rather, this nudity was meant to be “natural and sensual” depicting the appropriate physical intimacy between mother and child.
The Child’s Bath is a genre painting simply depicting a mother bathing her young child. It is the image of an everyday scene that is “special by not being special.” The mother sits on an oriental rug with the child on her lap draped in a cloth. The woman’s dress has strong vertical stripes in muted shades of green, pink, and white. To indicate depth, Cassatt painted the faces of mother and child receding into space. The most distinctive feature of this painting is the angle of vision which creates for the viewer a sense of hovering above the scene. Due to the tilted angle of vision, the artist created a psychological distance between the mother and child through their partially obscured visages while managing to guide the audience to focus on the act of bathing. Both the subject and the overhead perspective of the painting were highly influenced by Japanese Woodcut prints as well as Edgar Degas.
Although Mary Cassatt struggled to find her success in an art world that was dominated by men, her oil on canvas painting depicting a mother bathing her child has become on of the most popular works at the Art Institute of Chicago where it has resided since 1910. The painting measures 100.3 cm × 66.1 cm (39.5 in × 26 in) and is signed “Mary Cassatt” in the lower left corner.
Resources/References:
- Mary Stevenson Cassatt
- Mary Cassatt (National Museum of Women in the Arts)
- Mary Stevenson Cassatt (1844–1926) (The Met)
- Mary Cassatt, American Painter (Brittanica)
- Mary Cassatt (Wikipedia)
- Edgar Degas (Wikipedia)
- École des Beaux-Arts (Wikipedia)
- Jean-Léon Gérôme (Wikipedia)
- Elizabeth Jane Gardner (Wikipedia)
- Great Chicago Fire (Wikipedia)
- “New Woman” (Wikipedia)
- The Child’s Bath (Wikipedia)
- The Child’s Bath (Google Arts & Culture)
- The Child’s Bath (Art Institute of Chicago)
- How to Read Paintings: The Child’s Bath by Mary Cassatt
About My Outfit Inspired by The Child’s Bath
As much as I love these Style Imitating Art challenges, I have never specifically purchased something for the sole purpose of a style prompt. I always shop my closet and find exactly what I need to do my outfit interpretations. In all honesty, I probably have multiple things in my closet that would have worked. But I was out shopping last week for my husband’s birthday present and I always enter our local mall through Burlington Coat Factory. I do this because it is the one place in the entire mall parking lot where I won’t misplace my car. Yes, I am that much an airhead that I generally forget where I park my car. I also enter the mall through BCF because they have really cute stuff for cheap and I like to do a quick walk by and see if anything jumps out at me.
Guess what? This jumpsuit jumped out at me. Go figure. The stripes and the colors were perfect for the painting and it was hanging on the clearance rack for $8.99. The fitting rooms are still not opened but I figured it was worth the price tag to take the chance. It is a size XL in Juniors so it’s a bit snug in certain places on my not-so-junior frame. But since I was able to get the thing on and buttoned up, I was going to style it for this post even if it meant adding multiple scarves to cover up all the ill-fitting spots.
I went digging through my bin of summer scarves and pulled out three: a white infinity scarf, a tan and white striped oblong sheer scarf, and a blue and white woven oblong scarf. My intention was to tie one around the waist to cover up both the back and front wedgie issues. The infinity scarf was not long enough unless I unstitched the infinity loop seam and I was just too lazy for all that. The tan striped scarf was too sheer and didn’t cover anything. But the blue woven scarf was perfect. Plus it acted as a representation of the child’s bath cloth that is draped around his waist. I secured the scarf very appropriately with a brooch depicting a mother’s hands holding a child.
After trying the three scarves against the stripes of the jumpsuit, I liked them all so much that I incorporated all three into the outfit. The infinity scarf made the best little lightweight shrug to cover my shoulders (although the back view was a bit weird) and the tan one was exactly the kind I needed to try a scarf turban. What do you think of my scarf turban? I really kind of liked it!
I struggled a bit with shoe choice as my first inclination was to wear strappy heels. But then I thought a mother would not be bathing her child while wearing strappy heels, certainly not in 1893 and probably not in 2021 either. Sneakers seemed to be the obvious choice. I went back and forth between a silver sparkly pair of slip on sneakers but ultimately settled on these white ones with silver mirrored accents.
My necklace is a recent gift from my husband that he brought back from his trip to Utah last week. He went to a science museum during his trip (I can’t remember which one and he’s not standing right here for me to yell across the house and ask him). The necklace features the Blue Nebula, a shining field of stars that is a stellar nursery in the Large Magellanic Cloud. I absolutely love it and have been wanting to add more space inspired jewelry to my collection. Because y’all know I am a huge space geek.
And apparently I’m a pretty big art nerd, too! I grabbed a washing bowl and went down to a pond to take some photos. I should have also brought the matching pitcher but I didn’t want to be totally ridiculous to passers-by. I am okay, however, with a little bit of ridiculous. I actually tried to convince Radical Ralphie to sit on my lap draped in a towel, but he refused! I thought it would be hilarious but he thought otherwise. Ridiculous, I think was the word he used. Can you blame him?
I stripped off some of the scarves to show how this jumpsuit looks without all of my body masquerading. It’s not awful but it is short in the waist and feels really tight through the crotch and butt area. The top is exactly the right amount of snug but I felt like the buttons were not centered and I was tugging and pulling at all morning long. Plus the top of my bra kept sticking out. Not to mention the hassle of using the bathroom. Jumpsuits are hard enough to deal with but when you start tying scarves around yourself and securing them with brooches, it requires a whole lot of effort to get your pants down! I did not stay in this outfit for the duration of the day. I kept it on until I had to use the bathroom and then I ditched it.
To see more outfits inspired by Mary Cassatt’s The Child’s Bath, please visit Salazar’s post for the complete roundup of submissions. You can also read the details of Salazar’s own inspired outfit here, Terri’s here, and Daenel’s here. Have you joined the Style Imitating Art challenges yet? Be sure to check for the next prompt on Monday, June 7, 2021.
Keeping it on the edge,
Shelbee
Linking up with these Fabulous Link Parties.
Outfit Details: Jumpsuit-Burlington Coat Factory / Sneakers-Payless / Earrings-Target / Necklace-Gift from husband / Scarves-Old
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
I am a midlife woman, wife, and stay-at-home mother of 2 boys and 2 cats. I have a passion for helping other women feel fabulous in the midst of this crazy, beautiful life.
50 Comments
Suzy
WOAH you seriously nailed this challenge, Shelbee! And I love that you took a bowl down to the lake and tried to coax Alfie into sitting on your lap draped in a towel!! I did laugh when I read that!
It’s funny that we both wore ‘scarves’ on our heads too!
Hugs
Suzy xx
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thanks so much, Suzy! I totally squealed with delight when I saw your post with your head scarf! So fun! And I am dying laughing right now because every time you refer to one of my boys, you use a totally different and incorrect name. For some reason, it absolutely cracks me up! Although Alfie is what Archie called Ralphie when they were younger because he couldn’t pronounce the R. But please don’t start getting their names correct now because it really does bring me such good laughs to see what name you will use next! Love you, sweet friend!
xoxo
Shelbee
Suzy
OMG I laughed so hard reading this, Shelbee!! I’m so sorry LOL!!! I blame the perimenopause!!!!!!!!!!!! 😉
Love you too, lovely!
Hugs
Suzy xx
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Oh my gosh, do not be sorry for anything! I was totally cracking up, too! I don’t expect you to remember my children’s names! Heck, I can barely remember them sometimes…and I also blame menopause!
xoxo
Shelbee
Tamar A Strauss-Benjamin
Another awesome look for a gorgeous piece of art!
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thanks so much, Tamar!
xoxo
Shelbee
Mireille
Too bad Ralphie didn’t want to be part of the prompt lol! That would have been funny! Love how you put this together once again! And the addition of the scarves give a lot of interest. Love your location too.
http://www.chezmireillefashiontravelmom.com
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thanks, Mireille! It would have been totally hilarious if Ralphie had played along! But he has been a bit of rotten grump lately wanting only to do the things that he wants to do. You know how that goes at 8 years old! This was a fun painting to interpret even though I went totally literal with it.
xoxo
Shelbee
jodie filogomo
And you even included props Shelbee….so impressive!!
XOOX
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
I did, Jodie! Thanks so much, my friend!
xoxo
Shelbee
Nancy
What a interesting story and woman. What a pity Ralph wouldn’t play the child, lol. If he had done that, it would have been a perfect copy 2.0!
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thanks, Nancy! Oh my gosh, Ralph would have looked so silly sitting on my lap like a giant baby! Haha. But it would be hilariously funny!
xoxo
Shelbee
Patrick Weseman
So very perfect. You are so spot on and looking cute.
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thanks so much, Patrick!
xoxo
Shelbee
Reni E.
I like your interpretation very much, Shelbee. The jumpsuit looks awesome on you, and there isn’t anything to be covered up at all. I love how you draped the turban and the sneakers are the perfect choice. Great job!
XOXO Reni
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Reni, thank you so very much. That is such a kind compliment. I had fun with this style prompt. I have fun with all of these art style prompts!
xoxo
Shelbee
Mica
It’s a shame that the jumpsuit wasn’t a good fit on you as the stripes are so cute and you’re right it’s perfect for the painting theme! I just can’t stand uncomfortable clothes though, i wouldn’t have worn it all day either. I do like how you layed wit with the scrves too! 🙂
Hope your week is going well 🙂
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thanks, Mica! It is a really cute jumpsuit and I like the way it looks on me, but I have no tolerance for uncomfortable clothing either! If it looked good without all the scarves tied around me, it would definitely be easier to tolerate for bathroom purposes. But jumpsuits and rompers in general irritate me from a practicality standpoint. I hope you are having a great week!
xoxo
Shelbee
Lovely
You did a great job styling this outfit. It’s spot on! That jumpsuit looks fab on you!
xoxo
Lovely
http://www.mynameislovely.com
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thank you, Lovely! I really liked the final outfit result for this style prompt, too!
xoxo
Shelbee
Jennifer
This is so interesting about the painting. You nailed it!
Jennifer
Curated By Jennifer
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thanks so much, Jennifer! I really am having such a great time with these art prompts.
xoxo
Shelbee
Jelena Dimić
Wow, you did a brilliant job creating an outfit and photoshoot inspired by the painting! <3
http://www.couture-case.com/
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thanks so much, Jelena! I love these art prompts for style inspiration!
xoxo
Shelbee
Kathrine Eldridge
I love how this look came together! Good for you for shopping your closet. The added scarf is such a cool detail.
https://www.kathrineeldridge.com
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thank you, Kathrine! I love shopping my closet! It has more things in it than any department store, after all! Haha.
xoxo
Shelbee
Terri Gardner
Hi, Shelbee, I’m so late to getting around to my blogs this week. I love the whole story behind this one. $8.99 for a jumpsuit is a great deal, but I’m with you-hassle if they don’t have a zip down the front. I made a buttoned jumpsuit back in the 70’s-one time, that was it!
Your use of scarfs is amazing and you know how I love props if I can incorporate them. You nailed it, as usual, and also, as usual, I totally enjoyed your story and history. Take care, Terri-until Monday!
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Terri, thank you so much! This SIA series is literally my favorite thing going on in blogland! When I sit down to write posts, I feel like I am flashing back to my school days and writing research reports (which I loved, by the way, back in my school days)! And as much as I liked the final outcome of this outfit, the hassle of it all was just too much! But maybe I’ll try out the jumpsuit by itself on a hot summer’s day. Getting out of it for the bathroom isn’t so bad without all the layered and pinned scarves! Looking forward to the next prompt! Have a wonderful weekend!
xoxo
Shelbee
Dee | Grammy's Grid
I agree with Suzy, you nailed it. Your hair looks like it’s gotten much longer! Thanks so much for linking up with me at the Unlimited Link Party 27. Pinned!
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thank you, Dee! This was a fun prompt! I haven’t had my hair cut in a year and I probably need to get a few inches trimmed off just to clean it up and make it healthy again.
xoxo
Shelbee
saree
It’s a awesome vintage look. The dress is perfect fit. The way you posed for the vintage clicks was awesome.
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Saree, thank you very much! This was a fun outfit to shoot. Have a fabulous day!
xoxo
Shelbee
Sheila (of Ephemera)
Love this interpretation of the art, Shelbee! Your jumpsuit is awesome (what a bargain) and I LOVE the turban styling of your scarf in your hair! This whole look really suits you.
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thanks so much, Sheila! I really liked the final result of this outfit, too. I felt kind of like a fortune teller or something like that!
xoxo
Shelbee
Michele Morin
Great likeness — and I kept thinking how freaked out your boys would have been if you had asked one of them to pose in the child ‘s role! 😂
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thanks, Michele! I am cracking up! I thought my younger one might actually do it because he is a goofball like me! I didn’t even ask the older one but that might have been even funnier to have an adult sized child on my lap!
xoxo
Shelbee
Ashley
This is absolutely amazing, Shelbee! Love how you styled this outfit so perfectly for the challenge, and loved learning about the artwork and the artist behind it!
Make Life Marvelous
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Ashley, thanks so much! I love these art prompts. They really push me to take my wardrobe creativity even further!
xoxo
Shelbee
Daenel
You did such a great job with this challenge. I like the jumpsuit — I’m sorry it didn’t fit as well as you’d like. I have a jumpsuit like that but I refuse to part with it.
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thanks so much, Daenel! I really like this jumpsuit, too. So I am going to give it another try before I ditch it!
xoxo
Shelbee
Claire
Such a lovely outfit creation. I love what you did here. That’s a great jumpsiut 🙂
Thanks so much for linking up to Creative Mondays. I hope you can join us again tomorrow 🙂 #CreativeMondays
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thanks so much, Claire! I love these art prompts! They push me to get really creative with my outfits.
xoxo
Shelbee
Claire
Thanks so much for linking up to The Weekend Link Up 🙂
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thanks for hosting, Claire!
xoxo
Shelbee
Renee Open
That is a very cool idea for a fashion challenge link party! And I love your choice of art and what you found to emulate it <3. That broach was a perfect (and creative) way to include the spirit of mothering, found in the art work, into your fashion!
Lovely, as always <3
Coming to you from the Chic and Stylish link up because your post there was what caught my attention 😉
Have a fab weekend and talk to you soon <3
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thanks so much, Renee! This Style Imitating Art series is so much fun! I only just started participating in December and it really allows me to approach my wardrobe in a much more creative way. I look forward to the artworks chosen every other week, too, because I do enjoy expanding my art history knowledge as well. You should try it some time! It is really fun. You can find the artwork for the next challenge here if you are interested! I hope you have a wonderful weekend, too, my friend! And I definitely look forward to chatting again. I just told my therapist all about you in my appointment this morning! Hehe.
xoxo
Shelbee
Joanne
I love how you research the art pieces you try to recreate! What a wonderful art history lesson here. Pinned.
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thanks so much, Joanne! I have so much fun researching for these posts. I love art history so it is a way to expand my knowledge while also sharing something new and intersting and different on my blog. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
xoxo
Shelbee
Anita Ojeda
I love these posts! Not only for the art history, but for the creativity you exhibit in your ‘imitations.’ As I dressed for church last week, I grabbed a skirt I hadn’t worn in years (but now fit into again 😉 ). It’s a paisley blue skirt by Tommy Hilfager that I picked up at Ross for $5.99. I wondered if maybe it wasn’t too ‘young’ for me. But then I thought of you and said, “Why not?! Shelbee wears cool, colorful outfits! I will too!”
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Oh my goodness, Anita, you really just made my day! Thank you so very much. It makes my heart so happy to know that I have inspired you to go for it with your bright colorful paisley skirt! I bet you got lots of wonderful compliments at church, too! Everyone loves a bright splash of color. It induces joy and happiness!
xoxo
Shelbee