Focus on this artwork and explore the Provenance.
During the late 1880s to 1890s, France favored domestic artists, and this made Cassatt feel excluded, prompting her to turn her attention back to her native country, the United States. Even though she was initially met with ambivalence from critics, the assistance of Paul Durand-Ruel was able to assure her success and status as an American artist.The artist sold the painting to Durand-Ruel and it was exhibited at the Durand-Ruel gallery in Paris in late 1893 under the title La Toilette de l'Enfant. It was sold to Connecticut industrialist and art collector Harris Whittemore in 1894, but lent back to Durand-Ruel for an exhibition at their New York gallery in 1895 under the title La Toilette. In order to help Cassatt achieve her goals in the U.S., Durand-Ruel explored new ways to expand Cassatt's American audience: through museums and institution exhibitions. When the artist returned home in 1897, Durand-Ruel first submitted The Child’s Bath and Reverie (Also known as Woman with a Red Zinnia) to the annual exhibition at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in early 1898. Afterward, Durand-Ruel helped to circulate Cassatt's The Child’s Bath along with her other works in multiple major cities in the U.S. from 1897 to the early 1900s, and this successfully established Cassatt as an American artist.The painting was sold to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1910.
Harris Whittemore Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Art Institute of Chicago Paul Durand-Ruel Chicago Durand-Ruel