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May 13, 2025
Mid-Morning Art Thread
The Laundress
Honoré Daumier
From the museum's website:
This painting depicts a subject visible from Daumier's studio on the quai d'Anjou in Paris: laundresses returning from laundry boats moored on the Seine. Despite the weight of her bulky load, the woman tenderly extends her hand to help a child up the steps of the embankment. With her sturdy form silhouetted against a bright background, the humble worker acquires a certain monumentality. This picture is the largest and possibly the last of three painted versions of the composition; Daumier's pigments have deteriorated, obscuring the last digit of the date inscribed at the lower left, but in 1893 it was recorded as 1863.
It can be frustrating to see a faded painting that must have been radically different when it was completed, and this is a fine example of that!
On the other hand, I am not sure I want my laundry done in the water of the Seine!