Le retour du lavoir c. 19th century

Théophile Alexandre Steinlen made this print, "Le retour du lavoir," meaning "return from the washhouse," in France, sometime between 1880 and 1920. It shows three working-class women carrying heavy loads of laundry back from a communal washing facility. Images like this are revealing of the social conditions of the time. The women's weary postures and the weight they carry speak to the back-breaking labor that defined their lives. The buildings in the background are reminiscent of the urban environment in which Steinlen operated. We might consider the print's status as a multiple, an image designed for wide distribution. How does it relate to contemporaneous political movements such as socialism and anarchism? Visual culture is always historically contingent, so scholars might look at period sources like newspapers, pamphlets, or even police records to get a better grasp of the artist's visual world.