The Laundress
The Laundress c1899 by Italian Painter Eugen von Blaas (1843 – 1931); Also known as Eugene de Blaas) of the Academic Classicism Period. Though he often painted Venetian scenes; he also painted many portraits and religious works of art.
This is a portrait of a young woman standing outside of a brick building that has three marble steps and a square stone column to her right and a doorway on her left side.
She is positioned in front of a large wooden bucket that has a piece of white clothing draped over its right edge and leaning against a wooden washer board that is fitted to the bucket; there is also more clothing lying on the ground near the bucket.
She is wearing an orange kerchief with red patterns on her head, a long sleeved white undergarment dress, a blue patterned corset, long off pink skirt, slate blue stockings, and brown sandals with red ribbons on the front.
She is posed looking at the view with a slight smile on her face with her pink skirt raised and tied to her back; while she rolls up her left sleeve with her right hand, to prepare washing the cloths before her.
This is a remastered digital art old masters reproduction of a public domain image that is available as a rolled canvas print online.
Info Below Derived From Wikipedia.org
He was born at Albano, near Rome, to a Tyrolean father and Italian mother. His father Karl, also a painter, was his teacher. His mother, Agnesina Auda, was a well-to-do Roman woman. The family moved to Venice when Karl became Professor at the Academy of Venice. He often painted scenes in Venice, but also portraits and religious paintings.
Among his works are La forma nuziale in sacrestia; La tombola in Campielo a Venezia; Una scena di burattini in un educanciatu; and La Ninetta. The art critic Luigi Chirtani, when the painting was displayed at the Mostra Nazionale di Venezia, described it as Beautiful, flattering, pretty, caressed, cleaned, polished, laundress in a painting by Mr. Blaas, the favorite portraitist of great Venetian aristocrats, dressed in gala satins, shining jewelry, hairstyles of the rich.
His colorful and rather theatrical period images of Venetian society, e.g. On the Balcony (1877; Private Collection), were quite different compared to delicate pastels and etchings of the courtyards, balcony and canals of modern Venice.
Eugene de Blaas’ paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy, Fine Art Society, New Gallery and Arthur Tooth and Sons Gallery in London, and also at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool