Washerwomen's Lunch, 1900
Jean Eugène Bulandexpand_more
Oil on canvasexpand_more
Gift of Alfred and Ingrid Lenz Harrisonexpand_more 2022.81
On View in Gallery 355expand_more
Jean-Eugène Buland created large-scale naturalist paintings representing scenes of everyday rural life. Rather than depicting his subjects engaged in labor, he often focused on quiet moments of rest, like this painting of women breaking for lunch in the afternoon sun. None of the washerwomen speak, giving the scene a silent, quotidian majesty, much like a religious scene. The sharing of red wine and bread is suggestive of the Christian Eucharist, and the young girl at the center, covered in white cloths, takes the role of an acolyte, receiving, or helping to administer, communion. Buland often used the new medium of photography to create his hyperrealistic paintings. He executed the sunlit scene with loose brushstrokes, yet the surfaces of the forms—textiles, hair, flesh, wood, glass, dirt—are rendered with startling intensity.
The painting was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1900. The critic Arsène Alexandre praised Buland's painting in his review of the show, writing "that it is a picture of a singular truth, without accent or romance, without theatrical arrangement, and one of the most vigorous that M. Buland has made" ("Figaro-Salon" 1900, Paris).
Details
- Title
- Washerwomen's Lunch
- Artist Life
- Paris 1852–1926 Charly-sur-Marne, Aisne
- Role
- Artist
- Accession Number
- 2022.81
- Curator Approved
This record is from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator, so may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@artsmia.org.
Does something look wrong with this image? Let us know
Zoom in on the left to the detail you'd like to save. Click 'Save detail' and wait until the image updates. Right click the image to 'save image as' or copy link, or click the image to open in a new tab.