The Child's Bath (or The Bath) is an 1893 oil painting by American artist Mary Cassatt. The painting continues her interest in depicting bathing and motherhood, but it is distinct in its angle of vision. Both the subject matter and the overhead perspective were inspired by Japanese Woodcut prints and Edgar Degas. It was bought by the Art Institute of Chicago in 1910, and has since become one of the most popular pieces in the museum. Subject matter Bathing In the mid-1880s, there were several cholera outbreaks in France, and public health campaigns called on people to bathe regularly. Bathing was coming to be understood as a medical prevention measure against diseases. At the same time, mothers were encouraged to take care of their own children, rather than utilizing caretakers, using modern hygiene methods employed at the time. Mother-child relationship Cassatt's interest in portraying the mother-child relationship first became clear when she started specializing in drypoints and pastels after 1887, and she intended to bring out the “psychological, sociological, and spiritual meaning” from everyday routines and subjects. Although Cassatt's reason for specializing in such a theme was never clearly explained by the artist herself, scholars have speculated that it was led by both “pragmatic and idealistic impulses”. The mother-child relationship was a common theme among French artists in 1890 and popularized through several influential artists at the time. In addition, Cassatt's interest may be connected with the work of Correggio and other Italian and Spanish masters, especially their traditional portrayals of Madonna and Christ Child. As an Impressionist, she hoped to discover new techniques and approaches to the theme by bringing it into the contemporary context. Cassatt's depiction of mother and child relations in the 1890s revolutionized traditional religious subjects by casting them in a “secular and naturalistic” context. By doing so, she mediated the conflicts between tradition and novelty. Because her initial series of mothers and children resemble the clarity and simplicity of that in Renaissance art, she was called “la sainte famille modern” by her dealers such as Paul Durand-Ruel. In the depiction of mothers, Cassatt consciously avoided using the female nude, which she considered as an appeal to men's treatment of women as erotic objects. Rather, she wished to emphasize the “moral sensibility and totality” of women's lives and only to suggest their sexuality through maternal relationships. The act of touching between the mother and the child