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Source Description
The Impressionist artist Edgar Degas explored etching briefly, from about 1875 through 1880. Created during this period,<em> The Laundresses</em> depicts several young women working at a Parisian laundry shop, hanging washed clothing and ironing. It is Degas’s only intaglio print that focused on laundresses, a popular subject in contemporary novels. Through the women’s hunched postures and the scale of the laundry pile at lower right, the artist emphasized the difficulty of such work.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
393049
label
The Laundresses
core
obj
dtoType
print
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
393049
contentType
print
title
The Laundresses
description
The Impressionist artist Edgar Degas explored etching briefly, from about 1875 through 1880. Created during this period,<em> The Laundresses</em> depicts several young women working at a Parisian laundry shop, hanging washed clothing and ironing. It is Degas’s only intaglio print that focused on laundresses, a popular subject in contemporary novels. Through the women’s hunched postures and the scale of the laundry pile at lower right, the artist emphasized the difficulty of such work.
date
1879–80
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q104217073
creators
286012
genreSpecific
Print
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Image: 11.6 x 15.7 cm (4 9/16 x 6 3/16 in.); Sheet: 21 x 23.8 cm (8 1/4 x 9 3/8 in.)
cul
France, 19th century
accession
2020.223
Source extras
tec
etching and aquatint
tombstone
The Laundresses, 1879–80. Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917). Etching and aquatint; image: 11.6 x 15.7 cm (4 9/16 x 6 3/16 in.); sheet: 21 x 23.8 cm (8 1/4 x 9 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund, 2020.223
supportMaterials
description
beige wove paper
collection
PR - Etching
stateOfTheWork
IV/IV
inscriptions
inscription
stamped, on verso, in red ink: ATELIER / ED DEGAS [Lugt 657]; lower right, in plate: Schneider / 9 Berlin
didYouKnow
In addition to the needle traditionally used in etching, Edgar Degas employed unorthodox tools including a wire brush and a double-pointed steel accountant’s pen to make marks on the plate used for this print.
citations
citation
<em>Catalogue des eaux-fortes, vernis-mous, aquatintes, lithographies et monotypes par Edgar Degas et provenant de son atelier</em>. Paris: Galerie Manzi-Joyant, 1918.
page_number
Mentioned: no. 95
citation
Delteil, Loys. <em>Le Peintre-Graveur Illustré</em>. Vol. 9. Paris: Chez l’auteur, 1919
page_number
Mentioned: no. 37
citation
<em>Edgar Degas: 1834-1917</em>. Exh. Cat. London: David Carritt Ltd., 1983.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: no. 18
citation
Reed, Sue Welsh, and Barbara Stern Shapiro. <em>Edgar Degas: The Painter As Printmaker</em>. Exh. Cat. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1984.
page_number
Mentioned: no. 48
citation
Richard Kendall, Anthea Callen, and Dillian Gordon. <em>Degas: Images of Women</em>. Exh. Cat. Liverpool: Tate, 1989.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 40, no. 15
citation
Minder, Nicole, Eric Gillis, and Richard R. Brettell. <em>Degas & Pissarro: alchimie d'une rencontre</em>. Exh. Cat. Vevey: Musée Jenisch, 1998.
page_number
Mentioned: no. 51
citation
Salsbury, Britany. <em>Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work, and Impressionism</em> Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 115, no. 12
citation
“Notes." <em>Print Quarterly</em> 42, n. 4 (March 2025): 54-86.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 81, fig. 73
catalogueRaisonne
Delteil 37; Reed and Shapiro 48
creditline
Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 08:58:43.638000
sourceId
393049
dept
Prints
coll
PR - Etching
med
etching and aquatint
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
77bb4ac393df3a35