On the Bateau-Mouche

A close friend of Edgar Degas’s and a prolific printmaker, Henri Rivière set out to fully represent the Paris of his day through a series of 36 widely varying perspectives. Each image was united by the presence of the distinctive Eiffel Tower. The city’s laundry industry features throughout the prints, which centers on a weathered wash boat in Bas-Meudon, an industrial suburb both physically and mentally removed from Paris, barely visible in the distance. Here, a laundress appears in a scene dominated by the tower, as she rides with her basket on a bateau-mouche, or water taxi.

A horizontally oriented color lithograph depicts passengers on a boat deck. To our right, a woman sits on a bench beside a woven basket. To the left, several figures with light skin tones sit under a dark canopy. In the background, the Eiffel Tower rises beyond a tree-lined riverbank. A palette of tan, gray, and black defines the scene, with floorboards receding toward the horizon. A red seal appears in the lower left.

On the Bateau-Mouche

1902

Henri Rivière

(French, 1864–1951)

France, 20th century

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