The Laundresses
- Date
- c.1756–61
- Material
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Paintings
- Collection
- European Art to 1800
- Current Location
- Not on view
- 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
- Public Domain
- 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.
We regularly update records, which may be incomplete. If you have additional information, please contact us at provenance@slam.org.