Baby Bill in Cap and Shift 1890

Editor: Here we have Mary Cassatt’s pastel from 1890, "Baby Bill in Cap and Shift.” I’m struck by how tender and intimate it feels, especially the soft pastel lines creating a real sense of warmth and vulnerability. What can you tell me about its context? Curator: Cassatt was really pushing boundaries in how women were depicted at the time. Forget idealized Madonnas – here’s a slice of domestic reality. It’s interesting, isn’t it, how she, as a woman artist, was engaging with Impressionism yet carving out her own visual territory within a male-dominated art world. Think about the gaze. Who is this image really for? Editor: That's a good question. It feels like a very personal image, yet it's now hanging in a museum for the public. Curator: Exactly. Cassatt often depicted women in private, maternal moments, but those intimate images became public displays. This blurred the lines of acceptable female experience within the public consciousness of late 19th century social codes and political norms. Who decides which domestic images enter the halls of “high” art? Editor: I guess, in a way, exhibiting images like this changed perceptions and possibly even made certain maternal moments acceptable subjects for art. Curator: Precisely. Cassatt's work both reflected and subtly shifted the prevailing social attitudes. That act, in itself, is politically charged. Has looking at the art and social history of "Baby Bill" shifted how you might see Cassatt? Editor: Absolutely. It makes me realize there is so much more than pretty pastels at play. Curator: Indeed. It forces us to ask whose stories are deemed worthy of representation and by whom.