This bucolic scene of a woman hanging clothes to dry in the sun really is in Brooklyn—the Brooklyn of the 1880s, that is, a boom time that gave the city new neighborhoods, parks, and of course, the Brooklyn Bridge.
Impressionist painter William Merritt Chase lived in Brooklyn from 1887 to 1890, and he often depicted it in his work: Prospect Park, Tompkins Park, and the East River were popular subjects.
“Wash Day—A Backyard Reminiscence of Brooklyn” shows a more intimate side of life in Kings County in a still country-like section of the city. A lone figure hidden behind a bonnet and in the shadows pins sheets to a clothesline, a necessary but mundane task no machine was available to do.
Tags: Brooklyn scenes in 1880s, City of Brooklyn, Impressionist painters NYC, laundry clothes lines old New York City, Wash Day in Brooklyn Chase, William Merritt Chase
Ephemeral New York 
October 31, 2016 at 5:45 am |
[…] a través de Hanging up the wash in a Brooklyn backyard — Ephemeral New York […]
October 31, 2016 at 12:09 pm |
Today we call it a solar-powered clothes dryer.
November 22, 2016 at 1:23 am |
Can you suggest any sources for letterheads of Manhattan based
companies or organizations? Copies are OK.
Thanks Steve
February 27, 2017 at 8:27 am |
[…] I haven’t been able to confirm Chase as the artist. But as a Brooklyn resident in the 1880s, he often focused on the city’s physical beauty as well as scenes of day-to-day life that suggest a bit of mystery. […]
March 20, 2017 at 7:22 am |
[…] as fellow social realist painters Robert Henri (with whom she exhibited her works at art shows) and William Merritt Chase (her teacher at the Arts Student League in the […]