The Bath
Do you have a favorite artist? I have a few, but my most favorite (or at least my favorite American artist) is Mary Cassatt. I was introduced to her in my freshman year of college, as part of my American Studies major, in a class called Visual America. We studied American history and culture and society through artwork, sculpture, photography, and film. It was a fantastic class.
I don't specifically remember what we learned about Mary Cassatt, but I remember being moved by her subject matter. She specialized in painting women and children, and especially had a love for depicting motherhood in her paintings. And I just find them to be so lovely. Women and children are shown together in the most everyday settings, but Cassatt had the ability to draw their closeness and their bond right out of the canvas. The love, to me, is palpable. And perhaps this is partly because they are shown doing normal, everyday things together. Cassatt's choice to paint women and children in the midst of routine tasks brings beauty to the sometimes mundane aspects of caring for children (like giving a bath). She delighted in the everyday, and seemed to believe that this is what motherhood is all about--constancy, and closeness, and continuous, un-changing love.
Breakfast in Bed
Children in the Garden
