Washerwomen

Painted in 1888 at Arles when Gauguin was staying with Van Gogh at the Yellow House, this scene of washerwomen beside a canal reflects his observation of working-class Arlésiennes during his two-month Arles sojourn. Gauguin and Van Gogh both painted local workers and the distinctive landscape around Arles, and comparing their treatments of similar subjects reveals the fundamental differences in their approaches to painting. The Museum of Modern Art in New York holds this canvas as documentation of the fraught Yellow House period.

The washerwomen are rendered with Gauguin's characteristic economy — simplified figures arranged along the canal bank, their reflections in the water described with minimal but effective strokes. The overall tonality is cooler and more controlled than Van Gogh's intensely saturated Arles palette. The composition is horizontal and calm, demonstrating Gauguin's more intellectual approach to the landscape subjects they shared.