James McNeill Whistler

La Blanchisseuse, Dieppe

Date Autumn 1899
Materials Oil on wood
Dimensions 23.4 cm x 14.0 cm
Marks Signed with a butterfly at the upper right
Further information GLAHA 46350.
Andrew McLaren Young, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1980 (527, plate 357).

Note La Blanchisseuse is French for a laundry shop. Whistler was probably attracted to this subject because he was very impressed by the expert way the laundresses in Dieppe washed and pressed his linen, in contrast to the service he received in London. However, he added little detail to this painting to suggest the business of the shop. It was the shapes and patterns created by the building and the colouring of plaster, panelling and brickwork that attracted him. Notice in this work how the painting is cut in two by the horizontal band of the shop sign. Above and below this, the picture becomes a mere arrangement of shapes. Stop looking at the details and consider how the painting is built up using simple rectangular blocks. This was a radical way to organise a picture and was partly influenced by the flat and decorative nature of Japanese prints.