Laundresses at Eragny 1898

Camille Pissarro made this oil on canvas painting, Laundresses at Eragny, sometime near the end of the 19th century in France. The image depicts two working women in a rural setting, absorbed in the labour of washing clothes. Pissarro, like many impressionist painters, often turned his attention to scenes of everyday life, however this was at a time when the French academy considered such subjects to be beneath the dignity of "high art". Paintings like this, therefore, carry a quiet sort of political charge, a sense of solidarity with the working class. To truly understand the significance of Pissarro's painting, one must delve into the social and economic realities of rural France at the time, the place of women within that society, and the politics of the art world. Scholarly articles, historical records, and critical analyses can help us understand more. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.