In the context of The Child's Bath, analyze the Comparison with Edgar Degas of the Influences.
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 Degas tended to isolate nude female figures in order to bring forth the intimacy through their movements. These figures’ ignorance of being observed in their private moments has been interpreted as demonstrating Degas’ voyeuristic perspective as a man gaining sexual pleasures from the act of peeking. In contrast, the nude children in Cassatt's works are accompanied by an adult caring for their children. Degas utilized the hovering angle of vision to suggest “the effect of peering,” while Cassatt's utilization of such technique with a contrast of the solidity of the figures draws the audience's attention mainly to the actions of the mother and child; by doing so, Cassatt was able to achieve emotional monumentality.
Edgar Degas Berthe Morisot Impressionist pastel angle of vision Claude Monet