 Compared with Wouter's "Ironer", the French artists' laundresses are shown in a more commercial/industrial context.George Washington Lambert had also produced "The Laundresses" about 1901 as well as "La Blanchisseuse (The French Landlady)" in the same year but without the expressive use of colour.The latter in particular was a formal group composition concerned with unity of effect in tones of black and white.