Often considered a forerunner of Impressionism and a key proponent of japonisme, the contemporary craze for Japanese art, Jules-Ferdinand Jacquemart was a founding member of the Société des aquarellistes français in Paris. Of poor health throughout his life, he spent his winters in the small village of Menton on the French Rivera, where he captured local life with his fluid, expressive brushwork. This young washerwoman is flatly rendered against a clear blue sky, revealing the influence of Japanese prints. Kneeling piously, her gaze is turned heavenward in silent prayer. The white linen in her hands recalls an altar cloth or the shroud that received Christ’s crucified body. Religious motifs lend this mundane scene a spiritual, transcendent quality.