Crossing the Bridge

c. 1885

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Albert Besnard

Crossing the Bridge

Albert Besnard

Crossing the Bridge

c. 1885

Physical Qualities Transparent and opaque watercolor over graphite on paper, Sheet: 350 x 250 mm. (13 3/4 x 9 13/16 in.)

Credit Line The George A. Lucas Collection, purchased with funds from the State of Maryland, Laurence and Stella Bendann Fund, and contributions from individuals, foundations, and corporations throughout the Baltimore community

Object Number 1996.48.18813

Albert Besnard’s watercolor depicts a washerwoman carrying a heavy bundle of laundry across a bridge, with the Seine River and a distant view of Paris in the background. While Besnard’s watercolor offers a sympathetic view of this woman’s strenuous labor, washerwomen were often sexualized and perceived as sources of both social and literal pollution during this time. Parisian washerwomen usually did their work on riverbanks or floating bateaux-lavoirs (laundry boats) moored in the Seine. During the renovations of Paris, physical space and clean water became jealously guarded resources among Parisians. As a result, the livelihoods of these working-class women were often policed and constrained. Images of washerwomen became prevalent in art, literature, and popular culture in 19th-century Paris, in part due to ongoing confrontations between domestic and public consumption of water and access to the Seine.

The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 1996; The Maryland Institute College of Art,
through Henry Walters, Baltimore, by bequest 1909; from George A. Lucas, Paris

The Maryland Institute, Baltimore, 'Exhibition of Paintings, Bronzes, and Porcelains from the George A. Lucas Collection,' 1911, p. 41, no. 193.

The Baltimore Museum of Art, 'Selection of Paintings and Watercolors from the George A. Lucas Collection', 1934.

The Baltimore Museum of Art, 'A Century of Baltimore Collecting, 1840-1940', June 6-Sept. 1, 1941, p. 35.

The Baltimore Museum of Art, 'The George A. Lucas Collection of the Maryland Institute', Oct. 12-Nov. 21, 1965, p. 64, no. 311.

The Baltimore Museum of Art, Downtown Gallery, 'Selections from the Lucas Collection', July 21-Aug. 22, 1975.

The Baltimore Museum of Art, 'Watercolors and Drawings from the George A. Lucas Collection', July 24-Oct. 14, 1990.

Jay Fisher, BMA, "A Continuing Example: Prints and Drawings from the George A. Lucas Collection," 4 February - 9 April, 1995.

Jay Fisher, BMA, "Degas and the Little Dancer in Context," 4 October 1998-3 January 1999

Jay Fisher et al, 'The Essence of Line: French Drawings from Ingres to Degas,' The Baltimore Museum of Art, June 19-Sept. 11, 2005; circulated to Birmingham Museum of Art and Tacoma Art Museum through Sept. 2006.

Joanna Karlgaard and Robin Owen Joyce, BMA, "Deconstructing Nature: Environmental Transformation in the Lucas Collection," August 27, 2025 - January 11, 2026.

Fisher, Jay McKean, et al. The Essence of Line: French drawings from Ingres to Degas. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005, p. 110-111, ill.

Inscribed: lower right in watercolor: "'Besn[ard]"