The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 19, 2024
Petit Pont, Paris
1850
(French, 1821–1868)
Sheet: 26.4 x 19.6 cm (10 3/8 x 7 11/16 in.); Image: 24.6 x 18.8 cm (9 11/16 x 7 3/8 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1953.10
Catalogue raisonné: Delteil & Wright 24
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.- Henry Studdy Theobald [1847–1934], London
- Salsbury, Britany. Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work, and Impressionism Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023. Reproduced: p. 136, no. 30
- Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work, and Impressionism. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 8, 2023-January 14, 2024).
- {{cite web|title=Petit Pont, Paris|url=false|author=Charles Meryon|year=1850|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1953.10