Artwork
Washerwomen Descending a Quai Staircase
Washerwomen Descending a Quai Staircase is a print by the Impressionist artist Alexandre Lunois. It dates from 1888 and is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
- Accession no.
- 2021.141
About this work
Overview
Alexandre Lunois’s lithograph titled Washerwomen Descending a Quai Staircase translates a mid‑nineteenth‑century scene into a print medium. The image shows a steep river‑side staircase beside the Seine, where two women in long skirts bear heavy bundles of laundry as they move downward. The composition captures a moment of everyday labor in a Parisian urban setting.
Subject & Meaning
The work depicts laundresses, a common figure in the social realism of the period, engaged in the physically demanding task of transporting wet linens. By focusing on their strained expressions and the weight of the bundles, the image underscores the arduous nature of domestic work and offers a glimpse into the lives of working‑class women in 1850s Paris.
Technique & Style
Created as a lithograph in the 1880s, the piece employs the relatively new print technology to render a scene traditionally handled in paint. Lunois intensifies chiaroscuro, deepening the shadows on the women’s faces to accentuate muscular effort. The crisp line work and tonal contrasts give the print a distinct visual weight, treating it as an original artwork rather than a mere reproduction.
History & Provenance
Lunois based his lithograph on Honoré Daumier’s 1850 canvas Washerwomen of the Quai d’Anjou, adapting the composition while introducing his own tonal adjustments. Though lithography was often used at the time for reproducing paintings, Lunois’s approach reflects a broader 1880s trend of artists exploring prints as autonomous creations. The print’s provenance traces back to Lunois’s workshop, where it was issued for a limited audience of collectors interested in contemporary French genre scenes.
Artist & collection
