sense of hovering above the scene. This perspective draws the viewer's attention to the two figures while giving a complete view of the surrounding space, but it serves more than a decorative purpose. Due to this tilted angle of vision, the obscured facial expressions of the mother and the child create a psychological distance, but their gazes at the reflections of the water guide the audience to concentrate on the activity of bathing. Composition Cassatt also created a cohesive composition through the gestures of the figures and geometrical resonances. The stripes of the mother's dress echo her straight arms, coinciding with the child's linear limbs. The oval shapes of the figures’ heads resemble that of the basin below; the shapes are connected by the diagonals created by the figures. Interlocking gestures also unify the scene: the contacts of hands on the knee, and the touching of the feet in the basin tie the painting together while conveying the underlying themes of intimacy and tenderness. Overall, art historian Griselda Pollock suggests that unlike Cassatt's previous works, in which these formal devices were used to convey “unexpected symbolic meaning” within an ordinary action, The Child’s Bath underscores the actions of the mother and child rather than their relationship in particular. However, Nancy Mowll Mathews suggests that the two figures appear to be serious and solemn, rather than playful and fully relaxed; this formality of the scene makes the mother and her child seem to be “engaging in a sacred site” and resembles “Madonna washing the feet of the Christ Child”. Influences Both the subject matter and the unusual perspective of the painting, viewing the foreshortened subjects from above, were inspired by Japanese prints and Degas. "Japanese printmakers were more interested in decorative impact than precise perspective." Comparison with Edgar Degas Cassatt was heavily influenced by some of her Impressionist peers, especially Edgar Degas. The first Impressionist painting to travel to the United States was a pastel by Degas in 1875 that she purchased. Cassatt began to exhibit with the Impressionists in 1877, where she met other fellow Impressionists such as Claude Monet and Berthe Morisot. The devices Cassatt deployed in The Child’s Bath were influenced by Degas: particularly, the subject of bathing and the acute angle of vision. However, Cassatt's manipulation carries a different focus and evokes more heightened emotions. Both artists often depicted their bathers with "a lack of self-consciousness”, but