Young Washerwomen

This recently discovered painting first appeared in the literature in 1987. Both Jean-Pierre Cuzin and Pierre Rosenberg believe it to be among the first paintings made by the young Fragonard when he arrived in Rome in 1756 as a pensionnaire at the Académie de France at Palazzo Mancini. Fragonard found himself charmed by the sight of the routines of daily life played out amid the ancient monuments of the Eternal City, especially the many young servant girls who washed linens in the city's great public fountains. This picturesque subject matter was the inspiration for the present canvas and several of the earliest genre scenes made by the artist in Italy, including Laundresses at the Fountain (private collection; C.62), The Laundresses (Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts; C.71), The Washerwomen (Saint Louis Art Museum; C.72), and Women with Children, Washing Clothes (private collection; C.73). All of these paintings were executed in a distinct and comparable manner: as Cuzin has observed, they are striking because of their dramatic contrasts of light and shade, warm reddish-brown palette, and the frank, vivid touch which enlivens a pervasive darkness with just a few sharp and brilliant accents of light.