The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 15, 2025
Satan
c.1848–62
(French, 1804–1866)
Sheet: 44.6 x 31.1 cm (17 9/16 x 12 1/4 in.); Image: 20.3 x 18 cm (8 x 7 1/16 in.)
Gift of John Bonebrake 2009.530
Catalogue raisonné: Armelhault and Bocher pp 415-6, no. 1671
Location: Not on view
Description
As the illustrated press proliferated in France during the 1800s, the caricatures published within such newspapers and magazines were sometimes censored. Paul Gavarni was one of numerous artists at this time who used imagery of laundresses as a means of social critique. Here, a young woman’s blouse falls from her shoulder, suggesting her loose morals. She pauses from ironing to listen as a procuress—a woman who lures girls into sex work—approaches her. The print’s title alludes to the woman’s motives and the precariousness of virtue. Gavarni was among Edgar Degas’s favorite artists, and Degas built a substantial collection of the earlier artist’s prints.- Salsbury, Britany. Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work, and Impressionism Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023. Reproduced: p. 180, no. 59
- 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=Satan|url=false|author=Paul Gavarni|year=c.1848–62|access-date=15 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2009.530