Le lavoir (The Washhouse)

Artist Alfred Sisley (French, 1839–1899)

Date1876

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensionscanvas: 38.4 × 55.2 cm (15 1/8 × 21 3/4 in.)
framed: 64.8 × 81.9 × 11.4 cm (25 1/2 × 32 1/4 × 4 1/2 in.)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineGift from the Estate of Robert W. Stoddard

Terms

Object number1998.214

Label TextWith the advent of a modern, comprehensive rail system with Paris as its hub, nearby villages on the banks of the Seine River were absorbed into suburbs, called banlieues. They became centers for industry, but also popular sites for city-dwellers seeking an easy escape into the nature that remained. Indeed, these suburbs often catered to Parisian pleasure-seekers with modern amenities such as hotels, cafés, and boathouses on the river. Impressionists numbered among the crowd, as locations like Argenteuil, Bougival, and Clichy became their Barbizon. Sisley’s oeuvre is decidedly impressionist in its fixation with the play of light across water in all weather. He often ignored gardens and boating parties, instead focusing on local labor. Here Sisley depicts a washhouse, a covered structure on the edge of the river where laundresses would clean bedding and clothes by hand.ProvenancePicq-Veron, Ermont-Eubonne, Durand-Ruel, Paris (stock no. 15686); Arthur Tooth & Sons, London; Alex, Reid & Lefevre, London; private collection, USA; sold through Beadleston Fine Art, New York, NY, to Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. Stoddard, Worcester, MA, 1980; on loan to the Worcester Art Museum, 1981; gift of the estate of Mrs. Robert W. Stoddard to the Worcester Art Museum, 1998.

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