An Ironer By Alphonse Debaene, Small Trades

Young woman ironing a shirt on a table by a window at the very beginning of the 20th century by Alphonse Jules Debaene (1854-1928). In this painting, the painter focused on rendering the effect of light coming from the left. A painter from Lille, he regularly sent paintings to the Salon des artistes français in Paris between 1890 and 1911, representing women, the seamstress, the laundress, or men, the bookbinder (kept at the Musée des Beaux Arts in Lille), the architect in full exercise of their profession, making ethnographic testimonies of daily life in the Belle Époque. The painting is framed in a wood and gilded stucco frame from the end of the 19th century and, given its size, must have been painted to be exhibited at a salon. The fact that he had already presented a laundress in 1893 must be the reason for its non-presentation at a salon. The painting is signed lower right and dated 1900. It measures 110.5x84.5 cm without its frame. It is on its original canvas but has some tears and losses visible in the photographs. It really deserves a nice restoration.