Description

Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s model for The Laundress was Nini Lopez, whom he painted regularly between 1874 and 1880 in his scenes of modern life. He made this canvas shortly after completing the illustrations for Émile Zola’s L’Assommoir (The Drunkard), a gritty novel about the downfall of a laundress in the brutal and degrading world of working-class Paris. Unlike those illustrations , this painting lacks any portrayal of backbreaking labor or social oppression. Renoir chose instead to visually reference the 19th-century stereotype of laundresses being promiscuous, signaled in this and other contemporary depictions of such figures by the sleeve slipping off the shoulder. This young woman appears artfully disheveled and rosy-cheeked as she tends to the laundry in her affluent employer’s home, standing next to a basket of linens and a stove used to heat irons.

Provenance

The artist (d. 1919); possibly sold to Durand-Ruel, Paris, June 15, 1882 [per Durand-Ruel Archives, Paris, stock book for 1880–84 (no. 2464), and for 1891 (no. 1520), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 5, 2010, curatorial object file]; sold to Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, Aug. 3, 1905, for 8,500 francs [per Durand-Ruel Archives, Paris, stock book 1901 (no. 1520), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 5, 2010, curatorial object file]; sold to the Prince de Wagram (Alexandre Berthier, 4th Prince de Wagram), Paris, by Feb. 24, 1906 [this and the two following per Dauberville and Dauberville 2007)]; sold back to Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, Feb. 24, 1906, for 9,000 francs; possibly sold to Léon Orosdi, Paris (d. 1922), Mar. 2, 1906. Galérie Barbazanges, Paris, by Jan. 4, 1923. [this and the following per New American Art Galleries sale cat., January 4–5, 1923, lot 109]; sold to Meyer Goodfriend, New York and Paris, by Jan. 4, 1923; Meyer Goodfriend sale, New York and Paris, New American Art Galleries, New York, Jan. 5, 1923, lot 109, to John Levy Galleries, New York, for $2,000. [According to an annotated copy of New York, New American Art Galleries sale cat., Jan. 4–5, 1923, lot 109, photocopy in curatorial object file]. Howard Young, New York, by Mar. 28, 1923. [this and the following per verso of an archival photograph of The Laundress inscribed by Howard Young and dated Mar. 28, 1923, curatorial object file]; sold to Charles H. Worcester (d. 1956), Chicago, by Mar. 28, 1923; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1947.