Artwork Page for The Laundresses

Details / Information for The Laundresses

The Laundresses

1879–80

Edgar Degas

(French, 1834–1917)
Culture
France, 19th century
Medium
etching and aquatint
Support
Beige wove paper
Measurements
Image: 11.6 x 15.7 cm (4 9/16 x 6 3/16 in.); Sheet: 21 x 23.8 cm (8 1/4 x 9 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund 2020.223
Catalogue raisonné
Delteil 37; Reed and Shapiro 48
State
IV/IV
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

In addition to the needle traditionally used in etching, Edgar Degas employed unorthodox tools including a wire brush and a double-pointed steel accountant’s pen to make marks on the plate used for this print.

Description

The Impressionist artist Edgar Degas explored etching briefly, from about 1875 through 1880. Created during this period, The Laundresses depicts several young women working at a Parisian laundry shop, hanging washed clothing and ironing. It is Degas’s only intaglio print that focused on laundresses, a popular subject in contemporary novels. Through the women’s hunched postures and the scale of the laundry pile at lower right, the artist emphasized the difficulty of such work.
A horizontally oriented print in black ink depicts several women in a shadowed interior. To the left, a woman sits with her head resting on her hand. On the right, two figures lean over a long table while one presses an object onto the surface. Dense vertical strokes and grainy textures create heavy shadows across the scene. A faint figure stands within an opening in the background to the left.

The Laundresses

1879–80

Edgar Degas

(French, 1834–1917)
France, 19th century

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