These years at Pontoise, Pissaro has shifted away from landscapes to the depiction of peasants. Here a young woman is washing plates in a bucket on a little makeshift table outside the kitchen door. She is not a drudge; not in tattered clothing or a uniform suggesting she is employed by a rich person. She is not dirty or bent over in oppressive misery. She stands in a lovely setting - a path with little hedges, flowering vines and a fruit tree. It's a sunny day with some mottled shadows behind her. She wears a simple white cap, dress and apron. Pissaro seems to be saying, "Everyone's work has value."
There is no tension in this painting - no class struggle (rich against poor), no color, national or religious tension. This may well be the lady's home, and she has taken her everyday task outdoors to enjoy the sunshine and warmth of spring. There is a sense of leisure-d peace to the painting.
Recently canonized, Oscar Romero, the martyred archbishop of El Salvador said (and he understood tension): "I do not want to be anti-anybody, against anyone. I simply want to be the builder of a great affirmation: the affirmation of God, who loves us and who wants to save us."
That pretty much sums up the Christian life.
