Provenance
The artist; (his sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, 6-11 May 1878, no. 110, as _Auvers (les laveuses)_.[1] Edward C. [d. 1915] and Mary Griffin [1855-1937] Walker, Willistead Manor, Walkerville, Ontario, and Washington; bequest 4 May 1937 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.
[1] According to Robert Hellebranth, _Charles-François Daubigny, 1817-1878_, Morges, France, 1976: 83, no. 225.
Accession Number
2014.136.57
Medium
oil on wood
Dimensions
overall: 24.45 × 46.67 cm (9 5/8 × 18 3/8 in.) | framed: 40.64 × 60.96 × 4.76 cm (16 × 24 × 1 7/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Corcoran Collection (Edward C. and Mary Walker Collection)
Tags
Painting Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Oil Painting French
Background & Context
Background Story
Auvers-sur-Oise, the village where Daubigny lived and worked for decades, became synonymous with his art. This painting of washerwomen at the riverbank is a classic Daubigny composition: a specific, observed location (he could see this view from his studio), figures engaged in humble labor, and a landscape that is beautiful without being picturesque. The washerwomen are not decorative additions but essential elements of the scene — their white fabrics echoing the reflections on the water, their bent postures echoing the willows along the bank.
Cultural Impact
Auvers would later become famous as Van Gogh's final home, but it was Daubigny who made it an artist's destination. Monet visited Daubigny at Auvers in the 1860s, and Cézanne and Pissarro followed. The village's artistic identity — a place where the Oise valley's flat horizons and changing skies provided a natural laboratory for exploring light — was established by Daubigny's decades of work there.
Why It Matters
Auvers (Washerwomen) shows Daubigny's Auvers at its most characteristic: a working landscape where human activity and natural beauty exist in unforced harmony, painted by the artist who made this small village a landmark in the history of modern art.
