The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 25, 2024
The Mortuary, Paris
1854
(French, 1821–1868)
Sheet: 28.8 x 24 cm (11 5/16 x 9 7/16 in.); Image: 21.2 x 18.9 cm (8 3/8 x 7 7/16 in.); Plate: 23 x 20.6 cm (9 1/16 x 8 1/8 in.)
Gift of Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. 1937.633
Catalogue raisonné: Delteil & Wright 36
Location: not on view
Description
Charles Meryon used etching—a technique that involves drawing on a printing plate with a needle’s point—to create minutely detailed images of Paris that imaginatively present recognizable sites. This print features bateaux-lavoirs (wash boats) on the Seine River, where laundresses could purchase a spot to do their washing. The boats appealed to Meryon, who was fascinated by Paris’s gradual transformation. Since they attracted crowds of working-class women, administrators considered the boats unsightly and unhygienic, repeatedly pushing them closer to the city’s outskirts until few remained by the end of the 1800s.- Georges Petitdidier [1857-?], Paris
- Salsbury, Britany. Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work, and Impressionism Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023. Reproduced: p. 137, no. 31
- Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work, and Impressionism. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 8, 2023-January 14, 2024).Charles Meryon: Prints and Drawings. The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH (organizer) (September 29-October 27, 1974); Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT (November 20, 1974-January 19, 1975); Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO (February 14-April 6, 1975).The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).
- {{cite web|title=The Mortuary, Paris|url=false|author=Charles Meryon|year=1854|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1937.633