The Washerwomen (Les Laveuses)
Medium
Etching and aquatint printed in brown ink
Dimensions
sheet: 13 3/8 x 9 9/16 in. (34 x 24.3 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 2010
Accession Number
2010.543
Tags
Art Historical Context
Jean-Baptiste Le Prince's *The Washerwomen (Lesaveuses)*, created in 1771, captures a serene moment of everyday labor in a rural setting. The etching depicts women engaged in washing clothes, surrounded by modest houses and trees, evoking the simple rhythms of working life. Le Prince, a French artist for his genre scenes inspired by his travels in Russia, infused his works with a sense of exotic authenticity, blending French elegance with Eastern European motifs during the Rococo era's fascination with the picturesque. This print is a technical marvel: an etching and aquatint executed in warm...
About the Artist
Jean-Baptiste Le Prince · 1734–1781
Comment on works: Genre; Landscapes; Portraits; Copper engraver; Illustrator; Master draughtsman