Pierre-Auguste Renoir occasionally worked as an illustrator, and this image was created for an edition of Émile Zola's novel "L'Assommoir" (1877), a naturalist portrait of working-class life in Paris centered on a laundress and her family's struggle with poverty and alcoholism. The illustration shows Renoir applying his eye for everyday Parisian life to Zola's unsentimental social subject, depicting young working women on the city's outer boulevards. It offers a rare glimpse of Renoir working directly in service of literature rather than his usual independent easel painting.
Jacquard-woven both sides in soft, durable yarn; insert included.
