Les Lavandières - "Les Pies"

Les Pies ( Parisian washerwomen ) Gustave Doré (Strasbourg, 1832 – Paris, 1883). Original lithograph, 1854. Leaf size: 26 x 33.6 cm. Subject size: 25 x 31 cm. Good condition, without foxing, early hand colouring. Stone signed « G. Doré » lower left. Plate titled « Les Pies ». This plate belongs to the satirical suite La Ménagerie parisienne, published in Paris in 1854, comprising twenty-four lithographs in which the young Gustave Doré, then aged twenty-two, transposes contemporary Parisian society into the form of an animal gallery. In this composition, the magpie is an obvious metaphorical figure of curiosity, gossip and attachment to appearances, following a process of social caricature characteristic of the 19th century.