1889
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Volpini Suite: Laundresses (Les Laveuses) is a 1889 by Paul Gauguin, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see women washing clothes in a river. The women are dressed in traditional clothes. This painting is interesting because it shows Gauguin's inspiration from Japanese art, which was popular in France at the time, and how he used this influence to depict everyday life in a unique way. You can learn more about this style by looking at the work of another artist, such as Paul Gauguin.
Gauguin discovered an exotic, primitive culture in Brittany, a rugged region on the Atlantic coast in northwestern France. He then sought to translate into expressive forms the picturesque costumes, customs, and special spirituality of the peasants. The unusual point of view, the stylization of the frothing water, and the cropped cow at the lower left all betray the influence of Japanese woodblock prints, which became popular in France from the early 1860s. The twelve lithographs in this set, printed from zinc plates rather than stones, were Gauguin's first attempts at printmaking. To…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (; French: ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer, whose work has been primarily associated with the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist movements.
See the richer artist page
![Volpini Suite: Old Women of Arles (Les Vieilles Filles [Arles])](https://pub-3a17a9933ad74fb28aa30fa758592f23.r2.dev/artworks/8f32581a9b118a14/thumb.webp)
