Honore Daumier's The Laundress

Honore Daumier once said, “Freedom and justice for all are infinitely more to be desired than pedestals for a few.” As an artist, he created thousands of works towards lawyers, policemen, enemies, and admirers during the industrial revolution. Against a background of civic turmoil, France see-sawed politically between opposing regimes, swinging from liberal/radical to conservative/reactionary with eruptions of violent revolutions, blood in the streets, riots, and uprisings (Weston, 2014). The French printmaker, painter, and sculptor Honore Daumier conceptualized the political impacts of the Industrial Revolution on modern urban life in the nineteenth-century. Daumier's ideas between socioeconomic different social classes are exemplified in Daumier's

This oil on wood painting is 48.8 cm x 33 and can be seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. cmIn addition to portraying the politics and anguish among each class through public transit, Daumier also painted the day to day lives of the working class. In The Laundress (1963), the viewer can see a middle-aged laundress in the foreground bent over from climbing the stairs after a long day of work. She has a child to her right, which was not unusual for that time, as there wasn't always some to look after everyone's kids at home. The child accompanying the woman also adds to Daumier's argument on the number of child workers during the Industrial Revolution. The child carries only a pail in her right hand and the laundress carries her wash in her left hand, which is clearly adding weight to the trip. In the background, the viewer can see a type of cityscape. This gives the idea that most people around, live in those buildings, which is separated by a body of water. Daimler recalls watching a laundress climb the stairs outside his room every day with the same bent over and exhausted look on her