Henri Rousseau – The Great Laundry Boat at Charenton Bridge

The Great Laundry Boat at Charenton Bridge, c. 1897–1903

The laundry boat at the bank

The lower half of the canvas is taken by a dark green-grey river. Moored at the left bank
lies a long low vessel with a pale hull, a dark roof and two tall black funnels. A row of
small square openings runs along its side, and above them painted lettering carries the
vessel’s name. We do not transcribe the letters – they are small; which vessel this is comes
from the museum’s record: the great laundry boat at Charenton bridge.

A fisherman who is too large

On the bank right beside the boat stands a man in dark trousers and a pale shirt, holding
a long rod that angles down towards the water. He is painted comparatively large. A few
metres away, out on the river itself, floats a long narrow boat with a row of tiny figures
in it – and compared with the fisherman on the bank they are far too small, as though they
had come from another picture. The Barnes Foundation’s record names exactly this mismatch as
the thing that only closer looking reveals.

A scene that is not a sight

The museum’s record points out that in his views of Paris and its surroundings Rousseau
preferred unremarkable scenes to the city’s attractions. This canvas is precisely that: a
working boat, a factory, a few houses and a fisherman. There is no Notre-Dame and no Eiffel
Tower; the place is chosen because it is ordinary. Comparably chosen subjects are Outskirts of Paris and
The Banks of the Bièvre near Bicêtre.

The far bank

Beyond the river a row of pale buildings with red and grey roofs stretches away, and at
the right edge stands a taller house with a red roof. At the left rises a white works with a
tall chimney from which dark smoke drifts – the only movement in an otherwise entirely still
scene. Trees grow between the buildings, and on the right a green grassy bank slopes down.

Reeds and sky

In the lower right corner a clump of tall green reeds rises out of the water, painted in a
few strokes and set right in front of the viewer. The upper third of the canvas is sky: pale
blue at the top, and below it large white-grey masses of cloud with soft edges. Comparably
ordered river scenes on our shelf are View of the Clichy Bridge at Asnières and The Canal.

The museum and the record

The original is held by the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia under accession number
BF856, under the title The Great Laundry Boat at Charenton Bridge, in French
Le Grand Bateau-Lavoir du Pont de Charenton. The museum records it as oil on canvas
measuring 46 x 55.4 cm and dates it to about 1897-1903. The record also notes that it was
strange city scenes of just this kind that made Rousseau popular with the Parisian
avant-garde.

How we make this canvas

We make the picture as a hand-painted oil on canvas reproduction, to order and in the size
you choose. In this subject it matters that the relation of sizes is kept exactly as it is in
the original: shrink the fisherman or enlarge the figures in the boat and the very thing this
canvas is known for disappears. Because the work is done by hand, every copy differs a little
from the last. The canvas is stretched on a wooden frame and delivered ready to hang. Other works by this painter are in the Henri Rousseau gallery.