The Laundresses
- Artist
- Jean-Honoré Fragonard, French, 1732–1806
- Date
- c.1756–61
- Material
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Paintings
- Current Location
- On View, Gallery 202
- Dimensions
- 28 3/4 x 24 3/16 in. (73 x 61.5 cm)
framed: 32 1/2 x 37 3/16 in. (82.5 x 94.5 cm) - Credit Line
- Museum Purchase
- Rights
- Contact Us
- Object Number
- 76:1937
NOTES
Two women in bright white and yellow form the focal point of this composition. They toil within a stifling atmosphere of dense steam clouds in a laundry. Jean-Honoré Fragonard, a favorite artist at court, often chose working class people as subjects. Here he captures the demanding physical labor that washing required, most notably in the figure carrying a heavy bundle. The artist makes visible the intense heat of the kettle; contemporary laundry treatises recommended a seventeen-hour process with temperatures near boiling.
Provenance
Private Collection, Moscow, Russia [1]
Benedict Cathabard (1869?-1917), Lyons, France
by 1921 -
Bachstitz Gallery, The Hague, The Netherlands [2]
Private Collection, New York, NY, USA [3]
- 1937
Arnold Seligmann, Rey & Co., Inc., New York, NY
1937 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, purchased from Arnold Seligmann, Rey & Co., Inc. [4]
Notes:
The main source for this provenance is an exhibition catalog by Pierre Rosenberg [Rosenberg, Pierre. "Fragonard." New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1988, cat. no. 21]. Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.
[1] This was the only collection listed on the invoice from Arnold Seligmann, Rey & Co. [dated January 5, 1938; SLAM document files]. It is plausible that Seligmann simply did not list the other collections because two of them were dealers.
[2] The painting is in the undated catalogue of the Bachstitz Gallery which Pierre Rosenberg dates as 1921 [Bachstitz Gallery. "Catalogue of Paintings and Tapestries." Vol. 1 of "Catalogue." Berlin: Albert Frisch [1921], cat. no. 68].
[3] Wildenstein lists the painting as being in a private collection in New York after it was in the Cathabard Collection [Wildenstein, Georges. "The Paintings of Fragonard." New York: Phaidon, 1960, cat. no. 361].
[4] Minutes of the Administrative Board of Control of the City Art Museum, November 4, 1937.
Benedict Cathabard (1869?-1917), Lyons, France
by 1921 -
Bachstitz Gallery, The Hague, The Netherlands [2]
Private Collection, New York, NY, USA [3]
- 1937
Arnold Seligmann, Rey & Co., Inc., New York, NY
1937 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, purchased from Arnold Seligmann, Rey & Co., Inc. [4]
Notes:
The main source for this provenance is an exhibition catalog by Pierre Rosenberg [Rosenberg, Pierre. "Fragonard." New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1988, cat. no. 21]. Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.
[1] This was the only collection listed on the invoice from Arnold Seligmann, Rey & Co. [dated January 5, 1938; SLAM document files]. It is plausible that Seligmann simply did not list the other collections because two of them were dealers.
[2] The painting is in the undated catalogue of the Bachstitz Gallery which Pierre Rosenberg dates as 1921 [Bachstitz Gallery. "Catalogue of Paintings and Tapestries." Vol. 1 of "Catalogue." Berlin: Albert Frisch [1921], cat. no. 68].
[3] Wildenstein lists the painting as being in a private collection in New York after it was in the Cathabard Collection [Wildenstein, Georges. "The Paintings of Fragonard." New York: Phaidon, 1960, cat. no. 361].
[4] Minutes of the Administrative Board of Control of the City Art Museum, November 4, 1937.