Abram Efimovich Arkhipov (1862-1930) was a Russian realist painter who often depicted the harshness of Russian life for women. In The Washer Women he depicted the harsh reality for peasant women working together to clean the village’s laundry. Arkhipov painted two different versions of this painting; this is the original. Arkhipov visited local washhouses in search of a model for this painting. He found her when this painting was almost complete. He finished this painting and created a second painting which included a women hunched over in exhaustion and utter defeat which is posted on The Famous Artists as well and entitled The Washer Women (version 2).
You can learn more about this famous painting and see more examples of his work on our biography of Abram Arkhipov.