Hanging the Laundry out to Dry
Berthe Morisot·1875
Historical Context
Painted in 1875 and now in the National Gallery of Art, this canvas showing laundry being hung out to dry belongs to the domestic subject matter that Morisot treated without condescension, finding genuine visual and social interest in everyday household activities. The white laundry against an outdoor setting — sky, garden, possibly a wall — provided dramatic contrasts of white form against color field. Morisot approached women's domestic labor with the same attentiveness she brought to leisure and fashion.
Technical Analysis
The white laundry is handled with Morisot's signature feeling for the complexity of white in outdoor light, the sheets rendered in varied tonal whites from bright lit areas to cool blue-grey shadows. The figures of women hanging the wash are sketched with economy, their working postures captured in minimal but expressive marks.
