Back in January, Linda over at Under the Gables did a blog post about the romance of laundry. She posted a bunch of wonderful images depicting the act of doing laundry. As most of you know I destest doing laundry, but I kind of like hanging laundry out on a clothesline. And I love depictions of clotheslines in art. When Linda first blogged about these images, somewhere in the back of my brain I recalled that I had post card of a great painting of a woman hanging clothes on a line, but I couldn’t remember where I put it. Last week I finally uncovered the card and decided to make it my Sunday Painting for the week. I haven’t posted a Sunday Painting since before we went to Thailand so it is about time I get back on schedule and return to this regular weekly feature.
The title of this painting is particularly appropriate since Linda’s blog is “Dedicated to Discussion of Women and their Work.”
hogglestock 
What a beautiful painting. I think it's so important to appreciate the beauty in mundane activities. Laundry is deathly dull, but there is also something lovely in the smell of freshly washed clothes and the steam and sizzle of an iron! Thank you for bringing my attention to Linda's blog as well – right up my street!
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Thank God for tumble driers.
Nice painting though.
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Love the painting! But laundry is my least favorite activity. Ugh! Luckily we have a washing machine and dryer – the dryer being the machine I sorely missed when I lived in England a few years ago. We had a washer, but no dryer. So out came the hanging lines to dry our laundry, which really sucked during the cold weather – because it seemed like it took the laundry days to completely dry. I always just hung whatever I could on the radiators all over the house. So happy to no longer have to hang dry. Yay!!! And don't get me started on the fact that several of my friends chose to hand wash their clothes. I tried, but gave up after washing a pair of socks. Ugh! Gosh, I'm such a sucker for modern conveniences :)
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I loved looking at all the paintings in the link you provided- and the ironing ones, too. Myself, I don't care much for laundry chores, and hate ironing! But I do like the fresh, clean scent of clothes that have dried outside in the sun…
Funny story: once I shared a house with some immigrants from Turkey. There was a huge, long clothesline in the backyard and I used it regularly. One day the guy from upstairs approached me and asked if the clothes dryer was broken? He was very puzzled why I would choose to not use the machine and line-dry the clothes instead!
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I really *love* this image. I find doing the laundry quite romantic actually, even ironing as well, although it gets horrible when it builds up. Love the blog, Hannah .
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Books Snob: Nothing smells as good as laundry off the line.
Overdue: Certainly nice to have the choice.
Nadia: I have never really understood the drying cupboard aspect of English homes.
Jeane: He must have been worried he might have to hang out his unmentionables in front of you.
Hannah: I like to iron easy things like napkins and pillow cases. That is where my affection for ironing ends.
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As odd as it may seem, there is actually an anthology of literary writing on this very subject: Lavanderia. This is such a lovely image: thank you.
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Buried: How interesting. You have lots of great links…
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That's a good point. Actually, I never hung the underthings outside, mostly just my husband's shirts, and the jeans.
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