Editing Mary Cassatt (section)

== Artistic Achievement ==

Cassatt's mature paintings and pastels demonstrate mastery of composition, color, and the representation of human relationships. Works including "The Child's Bath" (1893), "The Boating Party" (1893-94), and numerous portraits of mothers with children reveal her ability to capture intimate moments with dignity rather than sentimentality. Her subjects, typically upper-middle-class women and children, engaged in ordinary activities that her treatment elevated to subjects worthy of serious artistic attention.<ref name="pollock"/>

Her printmaking, particularly the color prints produced in the early 1890s, represents some of the most technically accomplished work of the era. Influenced by Japanese woodblock prints that she encountered at a Paris exhibition in 1890, Cassatt developed innovative techniques that combined etching, aquatint, and drypoint to achieve effects unprecedented in Western printmaking. The resulting works, including the series of ten color prints depicting women's daily activities, demonstrate technical mastery while advancing the printmaking medium's expressive possibilities.<ref name="mathews"/>