Cassatt was a woman who captured women.
Fine women in dresses, women at sewing,
Or reading or writing or rearing children.

She captured like women capture today in scrapbooks,
Rapturously tender moments unseen by the world.
A mother cradling a chubby girl-child in her lap,
A modern Mary Magdalene, experience washing the feet of purity.

All the hallmarks of femininity included;
Floral walls, gilded furniture, and flowery porcelain.
Yet this is not a statement on the proper place of women,
But on a beauty at that time only they shared.
She inclines her head to her daughter, perhaps imparting
Lessons on washing, or life, or love,
Or simply imparting love, through her mother’s touch.