Woman Ironing

begun c. 1876, completed c. 1887

Oil on canvas, 81.3 × 66 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington

A laundress leans her weight onto an iron as she presses a shirt. Degas started it around 1876 and finished it about ten years later.

Her dark figure stands against a bright window hung with drying clothes. How light from behind changes a figure was a typical Impressionist problem.
Edmond de Goncourt said Degas showed him many laundresses and explained the iron's motions.
Look at the stiff white shirt folded on the table.
It was shown in Paris in 1924 as Repasseuse à contre-jour (Ironer Against the Light).
Paul Mellon bought it in 1972 and gave it to the National Gallery of Art the same year.

Realist novels of the day dwelt on laundresses' heavy, poorly paid work. Many people doubted their respectability, partly because they delivered linen alone to men's lodgings.

Image: National Gallery of Art Open Access · CC0