Constanta Art Museum

„Laundresses”

Rodica MANIU MÜTZNER (1890–1958)

The painting represents a gendered scene and offers an iconic image of one of the rural activities traditionally intended for women – laundry at the river. Six women, dressed in traditional peasant clothes, offer an idyllic image, which oscillates between domesticity and sensuality, between activity and passivity. The image evokes a feeling of simplicity and lightness due to the clothing of the female characters. The women wear long, loose and airy shirts, and a brocade on their head, to protect themselves from the rays of the scorching sun. The way the artist composes the landscape with human figures is a traditionalist one that talks about the role of women in the family, the community and the communion with nature, aspects with which the woman was often visually associated. The composition is reminiscent of plein-air painting from the second half of the 19th century and captures a scene from a warm, sunny day, which lacks shadows and chiaroscuro, which makes the transparency and purity of colors stand out.

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