Washerwomen of Fouesnant
1869
30 x 23 5/8 in. (76.2 x 60 cm)
William-Adolphe Bouguereau
France
(La Rochelle, France, 1825 – 1905, La Rochelle, France)
Object Type:
Painting
Medium and Support:
Oil on canvas
Credit Line:
Bertha Buswell Bequest
Accession Number:
1955.61
Location: Currently on view
Collection:
Buswell-Hochstetter Collection
In Fouesnant, a bay in Brittany, Bouguereau found the source material that would fuel his work for years to come. Academic artists viewed scenes of peasants performing their usual daily chores as a modern-day counterpart to the rustic figures of antiquity so beloved in historical paintings. Despite their circumstances, peasants in Academic paintings were usually depicted as clean, well-fed and neatly dressed. Here a girl carrying laundry resembles a caryatid, a classical figure used to support an architectural pediment.
[Gallery label text, 2011]
Marks
Backing board; has been relined, with new stretcher.
Provenance
Sold by the artist to Goupil, Paris (dealer), 1869; sold by them to M. Lallou, Paris, 1871; John Snedecor, New York (dealer); his sale, Leavitt Art Galleries, New York, March 28-30, 1872, lot 140; Mrs. Colin Leiter Campbell, New York, NY; her sale, American Art Association, April 30 1936, as lot 20; J. P. Fritz, New York, NY (dealer?); William Randolph Hearst; his sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, January 5-7, 1939, as lot 12; purchased from that sale by Bertha Hochstetter (Mrs. Henry) Buswell, Buffalo, NY; her bequest to the Gallery, 1941; lifetime interest held by her brother, Ralph Hochstetter, Buffalo, NY, until his death in 1955, when it passed to the Gallery
Keywords
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jobs & work
depictions of working, also professions as subcategories
Additional Images
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Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions:
Bibliography
This object has the following bibliographic references:
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Article Title: The November Exhibitions: The Buswell-Hochstetter Collections.
Article Scope: Article.
Memorial Art Gallery.
Gallery Notes.
Rochester, New York: Memorial Art Gallery, 1935-1995.
Volume Number: 21,
Issue Number: 2.
Issue Date: November-December, 1955.
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Article Author: Smith, Virginia Jeffrey.
Article Title: Artists and Craftsmen: Intriguing Acquisitions Sampled at Gallery.
Article Scope: Article.
Rochester Times-Union.
Rochester, New York, 1923-1963.
Issue Date: November 14, 1955.
Page Number: 48
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Article Scope: Mention.
Elizabeth Brayer.
Magnum Opus: The Story of the Memorial Art Gallery, 1913-1988.
Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 1988.
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Article Scope: Mention.
William-Adolphe Bouguereau: L'Art Pompier.
New York, NY: Borghi & Co., 1992.
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Article Scope: Mention and reproduction.
Daniel Yonnet
and A. Cariou.
Le Finistère des peintres.
Rennes, France: Editions Ouest-France, 1993.
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Charles Vendryes.
Catalogue illustré des oeuvres de W. Bouguereau.
Paris, France, 1885.
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Marius Vachon.
W. Bouguereau.
Paris, France: A. Lahure, 1900.
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Article Scope: Entry and reproduction.
Robert Isaacson.
William-Adolphe Bouguereau.
New York, NY: The New York Cultural Center, 1974.
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Article Scope: Catalogue Raisonné entry and reproduction.
Damien Bartoli
and Frederick Ross.
William Bouguereau.
New York, NY: Antique Collectors' Club, 2010.
Volume Number: 1, His Life and Works
-
Article Scope: Mention and reproduction.
Marjorie Searl
and Lu Harper.
The Memorial Art Gallery: 100 Years.
Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 2013.
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Article Scope: Entry and reproduction.
Tanya Paul, ed.
Bouguereau & America.
Milwaukee, WI: Milwaukee Art Museum, 2019.
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