Untitled (1879): Art, History and Details

Untitled (1879) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Gaston de Latouche (French, 1854–1913); Cadart.

The work and its context

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

Although his work changed throughout his career, early on Gaston de Latouche belonged loosely to the Impressionist circle through his association with Édouard Manet. Latouche explored subjects—such as that seen here—taken from the lives of working-class Parisians. This print represents a scene from naturalist author Émile Zola’s novel L’Assommoir, which detailed the rise and fall of a laundress named Gervaise. Latouche is said to have collaborated with the author on the imagery and exhibited the entire series at the public Paris Salon in 1879.

Object facts

• Title: Untitled
• Date: 1879
• Creator attribution: Gaston de Latouche (French, 1854–1913); Cadart
• Culture: France
• Type: Print
• Technique: drypoint on laid paper
• Dimensions: Platemark: 28.8 x 22.5 cm (11 5/16 x 8 7/8 in.); Sheet: 31 x 23.5 cm (12 3/16 x 9 1/4 in.)
• Collection: PR - Drypoint
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 2022.430

A detail from the museum

Gaston de LaTouche completely changed the subjects and style of his work around 1890 and destroyed much of his early work.

Collection credit

Gift of Bernard Derroitte

Further reading listed by the museum

• 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.