Country folk lured by the promise of material goods and wealth, fine clothes and smart carriages, who end up working in coal mines and struggling to stave off poverty.
Pelez
Mr Punch and his wife Judy, and the crocodile as acted by puppets and itinerant players, and circus clowns. Paintings by Cézanne, Renoir and others.
The urban poor, painted by Raffaëlli, George Breitner, Fernand Pelez, Christian Krohg, Geoffroy, Henningsen in cities across Europe.
Laundresses who collect clothes and linen from homes, launder and press them, and return them for a pittance. Seamstresses working long hours with an uncertain future.
By the late 19th century, presses were churning out posters promoting events and products. Some came to appear in paintings of Paris and other places.
Sorolla’s White Slave Trade, a mother’s adultery and break up of her family, the awakened conscience offering redemption, or destitution.
Degas’ Miss La La, a clown feeding a baby, cruelty to performers and animals, the misery of the Saltimbanques, and the melancholy of clowns.
Bastien-Lepage, Regnault, Pelez, Debat-Ponsan, Buland, Dagnan-Bouveret, Gervex, and Friant: best in their class, and highly successful pupils.
Washing drying and ironing in the paintings of Berthe Morisot, William Merritt Chase, Gustave Caillebotte, Edgar Degas and others.
Barefoot and sometimes surprising, as Christ washes the disciples’ feet, and other feet are missing altogether. Barefoot means poverty too.
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