“The Jolly Washerwoman” - Lilly Martin Spencer

March 4, 2014

Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College

by Dariya Apsenbetova

            First when you look at this painting you probably notice the woman’s face and her outfit. Then you are looking at the place and what is she doing. The little details that surround the woman tell a person that the woman is not from the upper class. Her hairstyle, which is tied, and her peasant’s dress support this idea. The woman is doing laundry and note the thin sheen of sweat on the woman’s arms, her wet, ruddy, muscular hands, and the superb rendering of all the different fabrics, both wet and dry, as well as the various textures and sheens of all the woods and metals on display. However, her smiling face tells that she is happy when she is doing that. Looks like she is saying: “Look how it’s done. The women’s work.” On the background you can notice the clothes washed in the basin (lights first, followed by the colors with dyes that might run). The crumpled clothes yet to be washed, suds bucket, washboard, and the clothespins for drying. It is very interesting to know that in the picture, the author drew herself. Lilly Spencer illustrated herself washing and, in fact, she had 13 children and a husband. Unbelievably, she managed just to support them all with her painting. This picture somehow gives the viewer positive emotions and warmth because the colors are warm (red, yellow, brown) and the face itself is joyful with all the little wrinkles between her nose and her eyes. These wrinkles that transform a cat’s face when it snarls and her eyes watering with mirth. The whole effect is not beautiful, but it’s something better. The overall message of this painting, I think, is that Spencer wants to show us that she likes this Jolly Washerwoman and even though she, Spencer, a mother of 13 children who was against all the odds, managed to build her career by doing something she had a real talent for — was always loved in return.