La Récureuse

Bouys became chiefly a painter of portraits (among those painted by him was one of La Fosse), but a late genre picture by him like La R�cureuse (The Scrubbing Woman) comes as a delightful novelty, even allowing for the influence of Chardin, so much younger an artist. The subject is humble enough, domestic and also notably demure in treatment. In her prettily-striped dress, the young servant girl is seriously absorbed by her task of polishing the scattered silverware, itself painted with serious, absorbing attention to shape as well as to surface.