Woman Doing Wash (The Washerwoman)

Discussion

FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

Although French painter Jean-Siméon Chardin received the training of a formal history painter, he gravitated toward scenes of daily life. Once he was accepted into the French Academy in 1728, he showed still lifes and genre subjects at every annual Salon exhibition until his death in 1779. His paintings were popular among aristocratic, bourgeois, and royal collectors, and many were turned into engravings, which could be easily circulated. Woman Doing Wash depicts two domestic servants along with the child of their employer. Aristocratic viewers from Chardin's era may have been charmed by this shared moment between a child and his maid, but it is difficult as contemporary viewers to ignore the stark class differences on display.

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