The laundry chore by Martha Stettler (1870-1945)

‘The Laundry Chore’, oil on canvas by Martha Stettler, signed lower left.


Born in Bern to an architect father, she took up drawing at a very early age and was encouraged by her family to pursue this path. She enrolled at the Bern School of Art, where she met Alice Dannenberg, who would become her partner and share her life until her death.

They decided to move to Paris in 1893 to continue their artistic training and settled near the Jardin du Luxembourg. The park became a favourite subject for Stettler. At the same time, she exhibited works at the Paris Salon from 1896 onwards and took part in a group exhibition in Switzerland in 1898, which brought her a degree of recognition, gradually establishing herself on the art scene.

In 1902, she took over the administrative management of the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, a major centre of artistic training where teachers such as Bourdelle, Fernand Léger and Ossip Zadkine taught, and whose pupils included Tamara de Lempicka, Giacometti and Alexandra Exter.

Although managing the Academy took up an increasing amount of the painter’s time, she continued to paint the subjects dear to her heart.

The hustle and bustle of the Jardin du Luxembourg, where servants watch over children at play; the tranquillity of the home, where childhood also plays an important role; and the depiction of the garden, a place of calm and security.

Particular attention is paid to the relationship between the figures and the objects; the facial features are always merely suggested – they are not individual physical forms but rather idealised representations. The bodies and faces are stylised, lending his works an atmosphere of immediacy and transience.

The work we are presenting here is entirely characteristic of the artist. The faces of the child and the mother are deliberately rendered with little detail, whilst the brushwork is energetic, featuring large blocks of colour. The tight framing is reminiscent of photography and invites the viewer to contemplate an ordinary scene from everyday life.


Frame dimensions: 88x100cm