Contemporary images of Renaissance Washerwomen in action

From the archives of the British Museum come the following images (found using the keywords 'washerwoman', 'washerwomen' and 'laundress'). Most date from the late 16th to mid 17th century. Enjoy!

 Five women washing clothes, formerly in an album originally containing
62 drawings; one sitting by a basket to right. Genoese, 1542-1585. 

Pen and brown ink, grey-brown wash, over black chalk by Luca Cambiaso.

 A bleaching field, from an album of 102 drawings; 

five women collecting or laying down clothing or sheets, a man with a basket of cloth
on a wheelbarrow and a dog by a kennel at right, a gabled house beyond. Dutch, 1620-1626.
Watercolor and bodycolor, over black chalk, heightened with silver & gold by Adriaen van de Venne.

Two women washing clothes in a well at left, a third woman kneeling and rinsing clothes in a pond in left foreground, a donkey at right, a tunnel cut in stone beyond; after Francisque Millet. 

French, Flemish, 1657-1700. Etching by Francois de Ligny.

 

 A laundress; whole-length figure, turned slightly to right, balancing the laundry basket on her head; from a series of fourteen plates. Dutch; 1635, Etching and engraving by Jan van Vliet.

Plate 9: The Laundry. Singerie with several monkeys doing the laundry in an interior, such as washing, drying and stiffing collars; second state with lettering; from a series of eighteen prints showing monkeys. Dutch, c.1562, Etching by Pieter van der Borcht

Laundresses; two women standing either side of a table at centre pressing clothes, another woman, seen from behind at r, is leaning out of a window; French 1698-1762.
 Red chalk on cream paper by Edme Bouchardon.

Figure studies of male and female peasants including a group of washerwomen. 

Etching with some hand colouring. German, 1700-1800. Anonymous.

 A laundress and a shepherd in conversation near a stream; the woman seen from behind,
kneeling at left, the shepherd standing in profile to left at right, leaning against a fence in
 front of which a goat is standing and over which a cow is peering. Dutch, 1610-1647.

Etching and engraving by Moyses van Wtenbrouck.

Animals standing in a stream with a washerwoman drying clothes on a rock; 

a youth stands on the rock watching; after Nicolaes Berchem. Dutch, 1660 (circa). 

Engraving and etching by Johannes Visscher.

Washerwoman and herd on the bank of a river; a shepherd sits and examines his foot
and a dog laps at the water; beyond on a path a woman carries a basket on her head;
third state with publisher's address; after Pieter van Laer. Dutch, 1650-1660.
Engraving and etching by Cornelis Visscher.