Impressionism

Impressionism

Hanging the Laundry Out to Dry

Berthe Morisot was known for painting what she experienced on a day to day basis, usually on subjects about expectations of her class and gender in society. This piece, Hanging the Laundry Out to Dry, by Morisot is a classic demonstration of  her life as a woman in the middle class. As a woman in the nineteenth century, women were still portrayed as the caregivers and housekeepers, not resorting to very much. This landscape painting of people hanging up their laundry gives us a glimpse into the daily life as a middle class woman. Morisot’s short, less defined brushstrokes really gives an impression that living in the type of environment she lives in can be quite boring and unclear, but because you can still make out the picture, it is a life that is livable and not worth complaining about. The colors are muted and inching toward neutral shades, nothing extremely exciting or bold about it, representing the typicality and repetition in a woman’s daily, blasé, life. The set place of the painting itself is not only more rural, but it is noticeably farther away from what appears to be a city. The city was more of a place for the proletariat, as that was where all the factory work was done. Because the residence in the painting is placed so far away from the city, this gives a strong implication that the house depicted in this painting is an affluent household, which further isolates the woman from every needing to leave the house. Overall, this painting describes how isolating it can be as a bourgeoisie woman.

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