Washerwomen

Maker Carl Pickhardt (American, born 1908)

Collections

American Print Selections

ClassificationsPRINTS

Date1935

Mediumlithograph

Dimensions18 5/8 x 11 in. (47.3 x 27.9 cm.) sheet: 15 x 11 in. (38.1 x 27.9 cm.)

SignedSigned and dated in lower left of recto in graphite: Pickhardt 1935

InscribedSigned and dated in lower left of recto in graphite: Pickhardt 1935 Inscribed in lower right of recto in graphite: 18/30

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of Hannah S. Kully

Status

Not on view

Label TextPickhardt's choice of an everyday activity and his attention to realism suggest the influence of the Ashcan School on his work. The statuesque forms of the women's bodies add dignity to their task.

This lithograph demonstrates Pickhardt's concern with the elements of shape, organization, and light and dark. The alternating positions of the women enliven the angle of the clothesline. The ground seems to tilt up toward the viewer, a modernist perspective pioneered by nineteenth-century artists such as Paul Cézanne.

Object number2011.3.18