The Theme: At first, Pissarro’s primary interest was in landscape, but later, from about 1880, he began to paint either its female inhabitants or a combination of the two subjects. The domestic tasks the artist most often illustrated are needlework, sewing, and mending, which more often took place indoors, and laundry women washing clothes by hand while kneeling beside a stream or standing over wooden tubs. According to Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts (2005), Pissarro depicted laundresses eight times. A much larger number of his pictures show women laboring outdoors in fields or kitchen gardens.
The Painting: Early in 1884 Pissarro had moved from L'Hermitage to Eragny, a quiet village on the Epte River (the population in 2020 was less than six hundred), where he spent the balance of his life. Shortly thereafter, he began to explore the more scientific approach to painting advocated by the young Georges Seurat. That style, Pointillism, involved placing side by side tiny dots of pure, unmixed color which would resolve into a legible image when seen from a distance (see, for example, Seurat
2002.62.3). By 1893, Pissarro’s commitment to the Pointillist system had loosened, and his manner was more relaxed, but the influence of Seurat may still be felt here in the flurry of color. There are passages of white in the sky and the laundry, and a vibrant yellow is used for the large flowers with red centers, but, otherwise, the facture when examined closely looks mesh-like: the mixing and layering are complex, with a reliance on pink and green. While many areas look worked over, at the top and bottom edges some canvas is left bare. The laundress, in profile, head inclined, leans into the wooden wash tub on her forward foot, with her hands in the water. The multiple colors of her apron contrast with black slippers and stockings. The large tub and a smaller one for rinsing stand on legs so that they are easier to reach. Indistinguishable items of cloth hang from the rims, and water pools on the ground below and seeps toward the lower right corner. Beyond the trees and hedge, a wall and the pitched roofs of houses provide a sense of enclosure, and above is a sliver of sky.
Katharine Baetjer 2022