Laundress and Her Child (Aline and Pierre)

c. 1886
(French, 1841–1919)
Sheet: 81.5 x 65 cm (32 1/16 x 25 9/16 in.); Mounted: 82.6 x 65.9 cm (32 1/2 x 25 15/16 in.); Framed: 99 x 82.5 x 4.2 cm (39 x 32 1/2 x 1 5/8 in.)
Catalogue raisonné: Dauberville 1394
Location: not on view
Public Domain
You can copy, modify, and distribute this work, all without asking permission. Learn more about CMA's Open Access Initiative.

Download, Print and Share

Did You Know?

Auguste Renoir also realized this composition as a painting in oil on canvas which is in the collection of the Barnes Foundation today.

Description

In this idealization of motherhood and rural life, Auguste Renoir depicted his future wife, Aline Charigot, with their son Pierre. Bright colors, including warm orange and yellow, are contrasted with cool blues and greens to create a dramatic impact. Renoir took full advantage of pastel’s unique optical properties, in which minute, irregular particles diffusely reflect light, allowing for an unparalleled velvety brilliance that is perfectly suited to portray the youthful bloom of the woman and child.
Laundress and Her Child (Aline and Pierre)

Laundress and Her Child (Aline and Pierre)

c. 1886

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

(French, 1841–1919)
France, 19th century

Visually Similar by AI

    CMA Store

    Nineteenth-Century French Drawings at the Cleveland Museum of Art
    By Britany Salsbury, Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings, The Cleveland Museum of Art. Drawing transformed radically in 19th-century France, expanding from a means of artistic training to an independent medium with rich potential for exploration and experimentation. A variety of materials became available to artists—such as commercially fabricated chalks, pastels, and specialty papers— encouraging figures ranging from Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres to Paul Cezanne to reconsider the place of drawing within their artistic practices. A growing number of public and private exhibition venues began to feature their creations, building an audience attracted by the intimacy of drawings and their unique techniques and subjects. In France and abroad, museums and individuals alike started to actively acquire these works while they were still contemporary art. Nineteenth-Century French Drawings at the Cleveland Museum of Art examines the history of this medium, from preparatory graphite sketches to pastels finished for public display. The publication chronicles the remarkable role that drawings—a cornerstone of the museum’s collection since its opening in 1916—have played throughout the institution’s history. Entries provide insight into nearly 50 artists and the place of drawing within their work, while five essays by leading scholars in the field present new research on the making and collecting of drawings in France during this extraordinary period. Published 2023200 pages with 148 images
    Nineteenth-Century French Drawings at the Cleveland Museum of Art
    The Apple Seller Poster
    Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919) his painting depicts a young country girl offering apples to Renoir's wife, Aline. The boy in the straw hat may be the artist's nephew, Edmond, but the young girl with the ribbon in her hair has not been identified. Bathed in soft, dappled sunlight, the figures are united through the fluid brushstrokes that cover the canvas. The leaping dog provides an accent of humor and motion in an otherwise tranquil scene. The picture was probably completed at Essoyes, in eastern France. Size: 32" x 24"
    The Apple Seller Poster
    Auguste Renoir: Oarsmen at Chatou 500-piece Jigsaw Puzzle
    PIerre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841–1919) Oarsmen at Chatou, 1879 On the Seine approximately nine miles west of Paris, Chatou was a site popular with Parisian day-trippers. Its accessibility to the capital and its proximity to the water made it ideal for various leisure activities, including swimming, promenading, and, of course, boating. Oarsmen at Chatou depicts what would have been a familiar scene to Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and it has since become one of the artist’s most familiar and beloved paintings. Visit Chatou yourself as you fit together the 1,000 pieces of this engaging puzzle.
    Auguste Renoir: Oarsmen at Chatou 500-piece Jigsaw Puzzle
    Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work, and Impressionism
    by Britany Salsbury, Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings, The Cleveland Museum of Art, with contributions from Richard Thomson, Professor in History of Art, History of Art, Edinburgh College of Art, Aleksandra Bursac, PhD Candidate, University of Toronto, Claire White, Fellow, Director Studies, Girton College, Cambridge, and Gretchen Schultz, Professor, French and Francophone Studies, Brown University Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work, and Impressionism is the first publication to explore Impressionist artist Edgar Degas’s representations of Parisian laundresses. These working-class women were a visible presence in the city, while washing, ironing, or carrying heavy baskets of clothing. Their job was among the most difficult, dangerous, and poorly paid at the time, forcing some to supplement their income through prostitution. The industry fascinated Degas throughout his long career, beginning in the 1850s and continuing until his final decade of work. The artworks from this series—revolutionary in their emphasis on women’s work, the strenuousness of such labor, and social class—were featured in Degas’s most significant exhibitions and praised by critics as epitomizing modernity. This richly illustrated publication accompanies an exhibition that contextualizes Degas’s series with paintings, drawings, and prints by his contemporaries—including Gustave Caillebotte, Berthe Morisot, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec—as well as artists that he influenced and was influenced by, from Honoré Daumier to Pablo Picasso. Essays by an interdisciplinary range of scholars of art history, literature, and history examine major themes from the exhibition, revealing the widespread interest that Parisians of all social classes had in the topic of laundresses during the late nineteenth century. 242 pagesOctober 2023
    Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work, and Impressionism

    Contact us

    The information about this object, including provenance, may not be currently accurate. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@clevelandart.org.

    To request more information about this object, study images, or bibliography, contact the Ingalls Library Reference Desk.

    All images and data available through Open Access can be downloaded for free. For images not available through Open Access, a detail image, or any image with a color bar, request a digital file from Image Services.