Laundry Barge
Marcel Duchamp
American, born France. 1887–1968
1910
An oil painting on cardboard mounted on board in which Duchamp uses broken color and simplified shapes to suggest a laundry barge and its reflection rather than describe it literally.
You notice a soft mosaic of muted pastels and confident, blocky brushstrokes that make the barge dissolve into shimmering reflections, pushing the scene toward pattern and atmosphere more than exact detail.
Executed early in Duchamp’s career, this work links Post‑Impressionist colorism and brushwork to the flattening and abstraction that presage his later, more radical moves away from traditional painting.
Medium
Oil on cardboard mounted on board
Dimensions
25 3/8 x 28 7/8" (65.5 x 74.3 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Mary Sisler Bequest
Accession
673.1990
Palette
Exhibitions
