Washerwomen on the Riverbank

Catalogue note

Figures rest and work along an ochre riverbank beneath tall palms, a woman in a rust-red wrap standing apart in the left foreground. The painting is economical and silhouetted, figures reduced to dark shapes against a pale, atmospheric river and distant hills. The warm earth of the bank against the cool water sets up a quiet harmony, and the group’s unhurried activity gives the scene a timeless, ceremonial stillness.