Folding the Linen (1893): Art, History and Details

Folding the Linen (1893) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Édouard Vuillard (French, 1868–1940).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Much of Vuillard’s work was focused on the depiction of contemporary domestic Parisian life. His mother, widowed when the artist was a young boy, worked as a textile designer and dressmaker to support her family, and Vuillard, who lived with her until her death in 1928, was deeply influenced by his experiences of family life. He frequently used his mother and sister as models, depicting them in the midst of household tasks, such as folding laundry.

Object facts

• Title: Folding the Linen
• Date: 1893
• Creator attribution: Édouard Vuillard (French, 1868–1940)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Print
• Technique: lithograph
• Dimensions: Image: 23.9 x 32.2 cm (9 7/16 x 12 11/16 in.); Sheet: 25.1 x 32.2 cm (9 7/8 x 12 11/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Lithograph
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1997.190

Collection credit

The Jane B. Tripp Charitable Lead Annuity Trust

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Major European Porcelain Crucifix, Pre-Columbian Figure, and Other Works Added to CMA Collection,” December 3, 1997, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Chapin, Mary Weaver. “Interior Dramas.’” In Private Lives: Home and Family in the Art of the Nabis, Paris, 1889-1900. Mary Weaver Chapin and Heather Lemonedes Brown, 40-93. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2021.
• Salsbury, Britany. Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work, and Impressionism Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.