In 1850s Paris, laundresses did some of the hardest work of all laborers. They washed and ironed in shops that opened to the street, and trudged through the city carrying heavy baskets of clean clothing to the houses of their wealthy customers. Sometimes the wages were so meager they had to supplement their incomes with sex work. A conspicuous presence in the streets, this realm of women fascinated the young Edgar Degas. It’s as if they were the prosaic counterpoint to his poetic ballet dancers. Degas depicted laundresses in around 30 works, which this exhibition presents together for the first time. —Elena Clavarino