Washerwomen

A scene set in the Catalan countryside, possibly around the Maresme region, containing elements genuinely representative of the mature period of Joan Llimona’s oeuvre. In a small grove, implausibly crossed by a stream or canal and located next to a farmhouse or perhaps a mill, two laundresses work hard under the eye of an old woman guarding the white clothes. The yellowish lights projected onto the white walls of the farmhouss suggest it is dusk and that they have been working all dav, A third girl approaches the farmhouse and from the other side of the stream discreetly watches the women, possibly her older sisters, at work. From the bundle she holds, we could deduce that she comes from working in a factory. lf so, which seems likely, Llimona would have been addressing a theme that was reflected in both his paintings and writings and which was one of his prime concerns: the necessary reconciliation between the traditional ways of life of the rural world and the new customs imposed by an industrial society. A lost cause he fought hard far, his fervent Catholicism, inspired by the doctrine of Pope Leo XIII, making him more inclined towards social action than mere pietism.

Llimona endeavoured to serve the Catholic faith from art itself, flatly rejecting the idea of art for art’s sake. Thus, in 1893, he prometed the creation of the Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc, an association inspired by Catholic morality that emerged as the antithesis of the associations in which the attitudes of the Decadent movement and bohemian modernism had a place.

He later made a decisive contribution to the development of a modern religious visual ethos, especially evident in his large sets of mural paintings. Finally, in his mature period, he accentuated his social concern by working with associations that defended “good manners”, such as the Lliga del Bon Mot, whose main objective was to combat blasphemy and clean up spoken Catalan. The subject of this painting is in keeping with sorne of his writings, such as Pobres noies que us haveu de guanyar el paf, published in 1924. From a heartfelt personal conviction that seems old-fashioned today, he sought protection for the poor young women of hum ble origin who were torced to leave home and earn a living in the city, exposing themselves to all kinds of risks.

These concerns are palpable in the background of this painting that is formally resolved with a synthetism potentially related to the influence of the Les Nabis painters and especially one of its most prominent representatives, Maurice Denis. lt is quite possible that this Washerwomen is the version Llimona entered in the 0fficial Art Exhibition held in Barcelona in 1920 together with La nostra gent and El molí. There are affinities between this work and others from the same years, such as Pensarosa prop del riu, conserved in the Museu de Montserrat. In the works of this final stage of his career, Llimona achieves an optimal synthesis of two of his great pictorial interests: the symbolist exaltation of female virtue and landscapes, a personal and original synthesis of which Washerwomen is a magnificent example.

Josep Bracons i Clapés