Title: The Laundress

Artist: Baptiste Greuze

The Laundress 1761 Jean-Baptiste Greuze French, 1725–1805 Oil on canvas A young laundress wearing, rather improbably, her best dress and red shoes to wash linens gives the viewer a flirtatious glance. The picture caused a sensation when it was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1761; the critic Denis Diderot noted, “This little laundress is charming, but she’s a rascal I wouldn’t trust an inch.” The painting is still in the frame the original owner, Ange-Laurent de la Live de Jully, had designed for it.