Les Lavandieres (The Washer Women)
Jean-Francois Millet
Details
- Artist
- Jean-Francois Millet
- Title
- Les Lavandieres (The Washer Women)
- Year
- c.1855
- Medium
- black conte crayon, pen and ink on paper
- Size
- 33 x 42 cm
- Details
signed lower centre left : J F Millet
also known as Women Holding Laundry
Provenance
Jean-Francois Millet to Monsieur Atger
Atger Collection, Droet, 12 March 1874 cat. no.87
James Staats Forbes, Boston
The Alexander Young Collection, Glasgow
Stephen Mitchell, Esq, of Boquhan, Kippen, Stirlingshire
Stephen Mitchell Collection, Christie’s, 22 June 1934, lot 83, sold to “Squire”
possibly The Fine Art Society, see Label verso
Hans Heysen, Adelaide, to 1970
The Hans Heysen Collection, Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 18 -19 June 1970, lot no. 131
private collection, Melbourne
Exhibited
Art Gallery of South Australia ,1944
Homage To France, National Gallery of Victoria,1975, then on loan until November 1982
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, Tasmanian, on loan March 1983 to February 1985
Vive la France!: Hidden Treasures of French Art (1824-1945) from Adelaide Collections, Art Gallery of South Australia, 10 July - 18 October 1998, cat. 72, p. 67.
Michelangelo To Matisse: Drawing the Figure, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 20 November 1999-27 February 2000, cat. no.111
Literature
Cartwright, Julia, The Drawings of Jean-Francois Millet in the Collection of Mr. James Staats Forbes, in The Burlington Magazine, 1904, vol. 5, no 13 (April 04) pp47-67
Etienne Moreau-Nélaton, Millet raconté par lui meme, Paris, 1921, vol II, fig. 130, illustrated (wrongly catalogued as belonging to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Murphy, Alexandra, J. F. Millet, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1984, cat no 61
Jean-Francois Millet, Hayward Gallery, London 22 January -7 March 1976 page 103
Thomas, Sarah and Trumble, Angus, Vive la France!: Hidden Treasures of French Art (1824-1945) from Adelaide Collections, Art Gallery of South Australia, 1998, cat. 72, p. 67.
Maloon, Terence., Michelangelo To Matisse: Drawing the Figure, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 20 November 1999-27 February 2000, cat. no.111. P.134
Further Information
This elaborate drawing inspired the painting, The Washer Women in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.¹ It is a large size for a work on paper and depicts an important subject, as well as having a distinguished provenance. It is one of the best examples of a conte drawing by the artist, comparable in scale and ambition to his best coloured works in pastel. This drawing “with its sharply reinforced outlines leads one to believe that it served as the model for the Boston painting. In the straight stance, braced arm, and distant gaze of the woman receiving the heavy, wet linen, Millet conveyed the weight of her burden as well as resigned acceptance of a task to which her body is well accustomed. Silhouetted against the sky, lifting the laundry to her companion’s shoulders, the second woman brings a note of poised grace to their labour, in which no movements are wasted.”²
¹. Jean-Francois Millet, Arts Council of Great Britain, Hayward Gallery, 22 January-7 March 1976, p. 103
². Murphy, Alexandra R., Jean-Francois Millet, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, p.95
To view the full catalogue essay please click here.