Quote of the week

Future design concepts in Laundry and Ironing care.

From the archives of All things Ironing - Innovation and design.

In this post, we visit the Electrolux Design Lab 2014 competition and highlight some of the designers and their entries.

Electrolux Design Lab sets out to inspire design students all over the world to apply their creative process to present their view of the future.

In 2014, the competition focuses on Culinary Enjoyment, Fabric care and Air Purification. We of course are interested in the Fabric Care innovations and ideas.

The Fabric Care design challenge brief as described on the Electrolux Web Page asks designers to offer solutions that can support the desire for sustainable, aesthetic solutions to make our homes look good in a way that does not create unnecessary burden to the environment.

Here are some of the laundry and ironing concepts offered by the young and upcoming industrial designers.

Andrea Chiampo studies Industrial design at the IAAD - istituto d'arte applicata e design, Italy and offers a vision of a new ironing concept future.

Smart concept table with Ironing robots.

Smart concept table with Ironing robots.

 A new iron concept.

A smart table that occasionally allows you iron in a clever and innovative way. A new way to have fabric care.

IRON Robots, through electromagnet system, have a greater pressure and movements around the mapped plan.

Protect your delicates clothes, drawing in the screen a barrier line where robots won't work.
Future is here.

Andrea 

.  .  . 

Šimon Řihánek studies Industrial Design at Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Brno University of Technology in the Czech Republic and is interested in both product and graphic design and also in music.

Wash and Iron your clothes on the go.

Wash and Iron your clothes on the go.

RollWash

Wash and Iron your clothes on the go.

The key part of RollWash is a special perforated cleaning surface that rolls up together with a piece or more pieces of clothing, just like a roller blind. Natural dry foam is applied onto the clothes through this surface from both sides. After that is done, the foam is sucked out. The roll then heats up, drying any residual moisture and ironing the clothes.

The RollWash is easy to use for everyone thanks to simple, intuitive controls. If the user doesn’t want to iron the clothes, he can run the washing process separately and vice versa – he can only run the ironing process. All he needs to do is to push one button.

Not only the RollWash is small and light – it can be battery operated and therefore the user can move the RollWash to different room or even carry it with him to work, while the device is doing its job.

Šimon

.  .  . 

Hugo Silva is 25 years old. Born in Pico Island, Hugo studies product design at ESAD Matosinhos - Superior School of Arts and Design, Portugal, has completed a course in jewelery with 3 years experience and loves art and design.

Smart hanger revitalising your garments.

Smart hanger revitalising your garments.

Köper

Smart hanger revitalising your garments 

Körper is a device designed for people who are constantly on the move, either professionally or for leisure. It is a smart appliance functioning completely autonomous. It is able to detect bad odors, spots and dirt, and will clean and refresh any garment to mint condition. Körper uses the very minimum of necessary cleaning chemicals and enzymes, will recover any material used and recycle what is possible for reuse. Energy use is minimum, slim film photovoltaics will produce energy during idle time, and low energy electronics together with multiple energy harvesting devices will rationalize energy use during functioning. Körper can be interfaced through a bluetooth low energy connection with any android tablet or smart phone. This way the user can control and personalization his Körper.

Hugo

.  .  . 

Veronika Hlaďová is in her 5th year of studying industrial design at the Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic and likes to view the problem from different perspectives to find an original solution.

Clean, dry and iron your clothes in one step.

Clean, dry and iron your clothes in one step.

IronHeart

Clean, dry and iron your clothes in one step

IronHeart is product that help us to take care of our clothes in everyday hustle and bustle. The idea came from effort to solve three problems, that are lack of drinking water, air pollution and many diseases in crowded cities.
IronHeart dry wet clothes and evaporated water is captured inside the product and can be use again for ironing clothes. For ironing are used microwave waves, which dry and iron clothes in gentle way.
After one day of wearing, our clothes are usually full of bacteria and pollution, so we ideally need to wash them. IronHeart use UV radiation for destroying any bacteries or mold and unpleasant odors. And back to the space flows clean, fresh air. User can aplly scents to refresh worn clothes. Thanks to combination of steam and UV radiation, IronHeart get rid of any pollution in clothes.The whole IronHeart is made form fabric, so it is simple for storage and space saving in user closet.Because IronHeart is made from farbic, it could easily copy any shape of clothes.

Veronika

.  .  . 

Juan Camilo Restrepo Villamizar is an Industrial Designer from Medellin city, studies industrial design at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Colombia and is convinced that with passion and dreams we can build a better future to live. He loves design, always thinking about ideas that can change the lives of the people.

Washing ball in your laundry basket.

Washing ball in your laundry basket.

Luna

Washing ball to clean in your laundry basket 
Luna is an electrostatic spherical washing machine. The idea consists not to put the clothes into a washing machine, but rather, the washing machine between the dirty clothes.

Luna is a metallic sphere, which loads within, a little dose of water. When the sphere is placed into the dirty textiles, creates a cloud of fine particles of steam electrostatically charged, which comes out through pores of the metal surface, wrapping and permeating all the tissues. Luna flows between clothes through vibrations and pulses that control their movements, to scrub and shake tissues, detect dirt foci and detach it. The metallic surface of the sphere acts as a magnet: electrostatically charged, attracts dirt particles impregnated with steam and sucks these towards the core of the sphere. Finally, Luna dries with hot air the residual damp in the tissues.

Luna simplifies and reinvents the fabric care and contributes to preserve the environment and its resources. Elegant, simple and sustainable.

Juan

Phone Ironing App

From the archives of All things Ironing - You can't believe everything you read on the Internet.

April 1, 2014
Osca Department of Innovation.

Breaking News. Here is a new mobile phone app from the people who created iDry and iWash. One could say the hottest new app to hit the market. Finally, an app that can turn your mobile phone into the gadget you need.

"This is literally ground braking," said the Osca general manager of Research and Development Mr. Fibs. "it's like an Osca Ironer in your pocket."

Using intercapacitor resistive omnidirectional nanotube (IRON) technology, the team of developers at Osca have discovered that as the human body is also an electrical conductor, touching the surface of the screen results in a distortion of the screen's electrostatic field, measurable as a change in capacitance.

"Our unique algorithm is able to store the ultrasonic capacitance waves, Mr Fibs said. "that can later be concentrated and released into the phone's surface turning it into a perfect replacement iron."

The app allows you to set the correct temperature for any type of garment. Fibs says he is now a fan of ironing his own shirts. "The best thing about it is that using Bluetooth technology and two phones at the same time, you can iron both sides of the shirt at once cutting your ironing time in half."

The research department is also working on a plug in iSteam attachment that should be available on the Australian market in about 12 months.

Arlene La Dell Hayes

From the archives of All things Ironing - An ironer in oils and acrylics.

 

Arlene Hayes was born in the Texas panhandle and resided there for most of her childhood. The austere landscapes and spare beauty of the region stimulated her artistic imagination at an early age. As an adolescent, Hayes moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico where she began her career as an artist.

 

Arlene La Dell Hayes

Originally working in the bronze medium, she produced both realistic and historically accurate sculpture with a focus on Native American themes. After mastering the human form in three dimensions, Hayes later turned to painting and the subsequent stylization and abstraction of form.

 

Arlene Hayes - Ironing

Viewing the stylized paintings of Arlene La Dell Hayes is a transitory experience, both visually and emotionally. Her multiple styles, variety of subject matter and intensely hued canvases evoke a feeling of wonderment and convey a universal influence.

 

Her surrealist acrylic paintings are strong in line, merging the conscious and the subconscious, drawing on both Eastern and Western tradition. While her work is at times reminiscent of the 20th century Surrealistic Movement, the paintings are honed by Hayes’ own singular vision.

 

Arlene Hayes - Midnight ironing

Her calligraphic brushwork accentuates forms primarily found in dreams. Indeed, the Spirit Warrior and Star Traveller series are derived solely from the artist’s dream states.

 

Embarking on yet another journey, Arlene La Dell Hayes also paints expressionistic landscapes and locales she has encountered in her travels. The oil paintings are a kaleidoscope of colour and form enticing the viewer to take part in the festivities or a stroll through the landscape. Vastly different from her more surrealistic works, these interiors and landscapes convey the artist’s unique vision as well.

 

Continually striving to work in different media, Ms. Hayes now produces evocative abstract compositions in plaster and whimsical figurative works in encaustic.

 

research links :

 

Arlene La Dell Hayes

 

Joe Wade Fine Art

 

Inspirational

A Fireburned Country

11 February 2014

It is said that fire is a part of the Australian natural cycle. in fact, many native plants require being exposed to fire to snap open their seed pods to propagate. So bushfires are not exactly unusual.

What has been unusual is the tendency for bushfires to turn into firestorms like the one that took so many lives and destroyed entire communities and townships only five years ago. The fear that given the right conditions any fire has the same potential is now a part of our lives and a City shrouded in a blanket of acrid smoke as it was today is a stark reminder.

Yesterday, a young mum recounted her story of survival as she and her children sought the protection of their dam as the fire swept over their property. Submerged up to their necks in water, with a wet blanket over their heads as the only protection against the flames passing over them.

Which brings me to the point of this post. There are men and women who willingly join the local fire brigade with the sole purpose of being trained and 'ready and able' when the fires come. What goes through their mind as they put on their fire protection gear I wonder. As they hoist them selves on board of the water tanker and speed off to face the flames head on.

Personally, I would rather prefer to be as far away from a bushfire as I can get. For the life of me, I can not think of a single reason why I would face a fire that can burn my skin off at a distance of 200 meters.

Nevertheless, that does not stop me from being entirely in awe of our fire fighters, who put their lives on the line in an exhausting effort to protect lives and properties and livestock.

This note is from a picture accompanying the story on the ABC News website in which Victorian firefighter Frank Amaroso left a letter for one home owner apologising for being unable to do more.

Frank Amaroso is the Captain of Wandong Rural Fire Brigade

 

Wandong Rural Fire Brigade

Ironing Board with Suction Caps

From the archives of All things Ironing - Ironing Board Design
 

The Liika ironing board, designed by  Tony Zakrajsek utilizes suction cups which allow it to be attached to any non porous surface.

This eliminates legs which can be knocked over and it also allows the device to be attached to a height level which is comfortable to the user, eliminating strain.

The articulating arms, which rotate and pivot, offer a large range of motion allowing the ironing board to conform to almost any household area, such as counter tops, windows and walls.
 

 research links:

 

Yankodesign

 

Liika

 

Coroflot

The Stealth Iron

From the archives of All things Ironing - Iron Design

Perhaps here is the solution to getting your man to enquire as to the purpose of  the strange device plugged into the power socket that makes the shirts look so good.

Yes, it is an Iron. But not as you know it.

This stealth jet inspired design by Nico Klaeber, from Koeln (Cologne), Germany transmogrifies the humble iron into a futuristic object that may convince those afflicted by selective domestic blindness to at least enquire to its purpose. Perhaps even consider 'having a go'. We live in hope.

Stealth Iron

Stealth Iron

Stealth Iron

Stealth Iron

Stealth Iron

Stealth Iron

Stealth Iron

research links

Nico Klaeber Strategic Product Design

Price of coal has ironers in a tiff

From the archives of All things Ironing - Ironing in India

We have many options in Melbourne when it comes to ironing. There are ironing services, dry cleaners and laundries we can call on to help us. If we are brave, we may venture to the nearest home appliance store and choose one of dozens of models of irons, bring it home, plug it into the power socket and do it our selves.

Running an ironing business in Australia, I often wonder how lucky we are to have a dependable supply of electricity. Well, not so everywhere in our world as a recent story from New Indian Express reminded me.

According to the article by Sruthisagar Yamunan (13/11/2013), ironing shops are being forced to increase their tariffs by some '3 rupees for a single cloth' due to the premium coal price doubling in the last 12 months.

Man ironing clothes with a flat iron on the road from Ranthambore National Park to Karauli

Owners of these shops say they are reeling under heavy losses, owing to high prices of coal over the last few months.

 

According to them, there are two varieties of coal available in the market. There is first grade coal, which produces more heat and requires a lesser quantity, which now costs around 65 rupees per kg. Last year during Deepavali, the same cost 35 to 40 rupees per kg.



The traditional irons are heated by placing burning coal in the iron chamber.

The Dhobhi of Punjab are said to have immigrated
from the ancient city of Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh,
and are now found throughout Punjab.

 The Dhobi community are still involved in the traditional
occupations of washing and ironing of clothes.

 

Handmade Dhobhi iron replica

The original Dhobhi (Washerman) design dates from

the 19th century and is still in popular use to this day in India.

 

The Dhobhi ironers prefer these to the modern electric models for several reasons.

They iron particularly well due to the heavy weight and extremely polished surface

that they acquire over time. They are also portable and do not rely on electricity

which is erratic in most parts of the countryside.

 

The Dhobhi carry these beautiful irons on hand pushed carts as they go

from door to door ironing garments for customers.

“The cost has become double. And the supply is also lower. We are having a hard time with our business,” says Jagir Hussain, who runs an ironing shop in Triplicane. On an average, his shop requires four kilograms of coal.

Low quality coal, usually referred to by these men as kaatu kari, has also seen an appreciation in price with a kilogram now costing 40 rupees from about 25 rupees that it cost last year. Such increases in price of a crucial component of their business means that many such shops have already begun to increase prices. While they had been charging 15 for pressing a saree, some have now increased it by 5 rupees.

But it is not just the coal price that has resulted in higher charges for the service. Shop owners say the labour cost for the person ironing the clothes has touched 700 rupees (AUD 11.50) per day.

 

“Labour is now too costly. Small shops like us are affected even though we employ only one person for the job. I pick up and drop off clothes from the apartments and so I cannot do the ironing. An extra man is a necessity.

Quote of the week

"You had better live your best and act your best
and think your best today;
for today is the sure preparation for tomorrow
and all the other tomorrows that follow."

 

                                                                                                    - Harriet Martineau

Customer Service

Opinion
 

What exactly is customer service?

Innately, we all seem to know or feel when we receive it or not, yet trying to define service or quantify it, remains elusive.

A Wikipedia definition goes some way to explaining the concept of Customer Service:

"Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase. A series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation."

Others try to explain the concept of service by defining it in Marketing terms. The 4 P's of Marketing have been more or less defined over the years as Product, Price, Placement and Promotion and are still accepted as valid today. However, there is a lot more to providing a service than having a great product at an affordable price at a convenient location and then telling everyone about it.

With global competition and production being increasingly centralised in locations that offer a more economically favourable balance between price and product, has come the loss of diversity. Making it increasingly difficult for a company to define its self by the product it delivers. Service has never been more important.

According to the Forrester website, the 4P's of service can be defined as:

Pain - or lack of. Customers want effortless service. They want to receive an accurate, relevant and complete answer to their question upon first contact with the company.

Personalisation - Customers are no longer satisfied with the 'one size fits all' service experience. Today, they want the product and service that they purchase to be individually tailored to their specific needs, wishes and wants.

Productivity - Customer service organizations must pragmatically walk the balance between customer satisfaction and cost. A reliable and efficient service experience gets positive customer satisfaction.

Proactivity - Customers want to feel like the company has their best interests at heart and that the company is partnering with its customers to keep them satisfied and loyal throughout their engagement lifetime.

In Australia, the debate about customer service, or the perceived lack of it has been pursued for as long as Osca has been in existence. And there is still no clear concept available do define it. About the only thing all the experts agree on is that it is very important to the success of any business.

OSCA SERVICE

We realised that Customer Service was going to be at the core of everything we do right at the beginning and started developing our own tools within the first 6 months of operation. The clue being in the word Ironing Service. Or to put it more clearly, we came to the conclusion that we are a Service company and our product is Ironing. Ironing is what we do, Service is what we deliver.

Most businesses look at service from the top down. Service strategies are developed through demographics, marketing, research and tested with focus groups before they are implemented through systems and training and passed on all the way down to the point of contact staff . "Will you have fries with that?" is a good example. The customer is considered but not consulted.

At Osca, we have adopted a service philosophy that starts from the bottom up. The needs and wishes of the customer come first and the service is developed organically, depending on each customers individual circumstances. As the service develops, it becomes clear that some aspects are more common than others and those are adopted more widely for the benefit of all the customers whilst the focus remains on the individual customer.

In the last five to ten years, the thinking about service has turned towards the 'Customer Experience'.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

 

Customer Experience as defined on Wikipedia is the sum of all experiences a customer has with a supplier of goods and/or services, over the duration of their relationship with that supplier. From awareness, discovery, attraction, interaction, purchase, use, cultivation and advocacy.

In short, customer experience meaning a customer journey which makes the customer feel happy, satisfied, justified, with a sense of being respected, served and cared for, according to his or her expectations or standard, starts from first contact and develops through the whole relationship.

 

"Loyalty," says Jessica Debor, "is now driven primarily by a company's interaction with its customers and how well it delivers on their wants and needs." (2008)

 

"A company's ability to deliver an experience that sets it apart in the eyes of its customers serves to increase their spend with the company and, optimally, inspire loyalty to its brand."

 

A 2009 Strativity Group study of over 860 corporate executives revealed that companies that have increased their investment in customer experience management over the past three years report higher customer referral rates and customer satisfaction.

The customer experience has emerged as the single most important aspect in achieving success for companies across all industries Peppers and Rogers.

 

Ultimately, service is about perception and perception is shaped more by feelings than facts. So service can not be truly defined from the top down if perception is a progression that leads to a conclusion.

 

Service must be defined from the self. Understanding that every customer has their own perception, reached through their own experiences and feelings just as each and every one of us do, is key to providing a good service.

 

Being in the service industry, I pay particular attention every time I engage a service provider and I am always on the lookout for excellence. What can I learn from what they do, that can help my company improve the service we offer to our customers. My experiences fall into four basic groups.

 

NO SERVICE

We all know the feeling. We engage a service provider and by the time our experience concludes, we feel underwhelmed. A good example is making a call and being put 'on hold' while an audio message repeats "Your call is very important to us, please hold." Well, if it is so important, Why don't you answer it?

 

THE NORM

We go to a restaurant. A pleasant waiter arrives, takes our order in a competent manner, remembers who ordered what, brings the meals out on time and takes care of any requests we may have. Exactly what one would expect. How things should be all the time. A level of service we expect and should get every time.

 

GENUINE SERVICE

It's the service we want to tell our friends about. "I went to a greengrocer, they packed the vegetables in a recyclable cardboard box and offered to carry the box to the car with me." We feel that the service provider has gone that extra step (pardon the pun), gone out of their way, did something that wasn't entirely necessary, but appreciated.  

OVER THE TOP SERVICE

 

We arrive at a hotel, the service is professional and flawless. From the doorman, the concierge through to the room service and cleaning staff. Everyone is super polite and helpful and offer any assistance needed while our account is open. On our way out, business concluded, we are ushered into a waiting taxi, but if the taxi driver takes too long inputting our destination into the GPS,  the same doorman who was all over us when we arrived hassles the driver to move on because he is taking too long - seemingly without any concern for the passengers. We've given you our best, you've paid, now get out. Somehow at the end of it all, we feel like we've been had and a potentially exceptional experience invites a different type of conversation with our friends. 

 

We have engaged the service provider and by the time our experience concluded we feel that although the service was faultless, it lacked any real relevance to our own individual needs.

 

Service is not just about a rational experience. How quickly a phone is answered, what are the opening hours, delivery times, etc. It is much more about how a customer feels. It is about how a customer consciously and subconsciously sees his or her experience.
 

Service is a selfless act. Genuine Selfless Service has nothing to do with WHAT we are doing; and everything to do with HOW we do it.

 

research :

 

Over 25 years of striving to give the best service possible,

considering the customer as the number one priority in everything we do.

 

other research links

 

Harnessing Happiness Foundation

 

Customer Experience Professionals Association

Beyond Philosophy

Wikipedia

Forrester

Quote of the week

 

 The pessimist complains about the wind,

the optimist expects it to change,

the realist adjusts the sails.

 

                                                                                              - William Arthur Ward

Pocket Ironer

From the archives of All things Ironing - Ironing Gadgets.

You are about to go in for that important interview and notice the crease on your sleeve isn’t quite razor sharp. The impressive tie you chose just for this occasion could be just a bit flatter.

 

No problem. Just reach into your pocket and activate your Pocket Ironer. Your personal standby ironer is ready to spring into action to make sure you put your best wrinkle-free foot forward.
 

The Pocket Ironer is compact.

The Pocket Ironer is versatile and easy to use.

Battery powered, the Pocket Ironer can be conveniently charged with a USB cable directly from your computer and comes with a clip attachment to hold the crease for easier ironing. 

 

The Pocket Ironer measures just 100mm x 60mm x 18mm and weighs in at only 60 grams.

The manufacturer claims that anything you wear that folds and can use a little extra ironing can be put right at a moment's notice.

Product Page

 

17 billion dollars

Opinion
 

Yesterday, I posted my thoughts about the 12 billion dollar hole in the government's budget. This morning, the finance minister Penny Wong announced that the estimated budget shortfall is now going to be 16 to 17 billion.
 

Finance Minister Penny Wong announcing the good news

At this rate, Paul Keating's prediction of a Banana Republic so many years ago seems like paradise.

 

Obviously, not being the first person to ask them selves this question, I followed a few links on the internet to find some graphics to illustrate just what a billion dollars looks like. To illustrate, I found these graphics courtesy of The Society Pages.

 

This is what 1 Million Dollars looks like.

  

 

This is what 100 Million Dollars looks like.

  

  

This is what 1 Billion Dollars looks like.

 

 

 

and this is what 17 Billion Dollars looks like.

 

 

 

" I think we need a bigger hole..."

Osca

12 billion dollars

Opinion.

 

Recently, our Prime Minister announced a 12 billion dollar shortfall in the government budget and it got me thinking. Just how much is 12 billion dollars exactly?

 

$12,000,000,000.00

 

"It's here somewhere..."

 

It is such a large number, one finds it difficult to wrap one's brain around.

 

Depending on the industry, some people earn less then or close to $20.00 an hour. At 12 billion dollars, such a person could have a job for 480,000 years. That's almost seven thousand lifetimes.

 

Even at $100,000.00 a year, considered to be a good income that most of the population only dream of, one could earn such income for 120,000 years.

 

or

 

a hundred and twenty thousand jobs for a year. Gone !

 

It seems incredible to me that such numbers can be announced by our government so casually, as if everything is just fine. Oh, we made a mistake in our calculations a half a year ago. Oh, it's not really our fault, the dollar is too high. But we want your vote in September. Trust us, we know what we are doing.

Osca.

Armand Gautier (1825-1894)

From the archives of All things Ironing - Ironers in oils.

Amand Gautier (1825-1894), a French painter and lithographer, he began as an apprentice lithographer but displayed such a talent for drawing that in 1845 his parents enrolled him at the Académie in Lille, where he studied under the sculptor Augustin-Phidias Cadet de Beaupré.



Armand Gautier - A woman ironing - etching
from Eaux Fortes Modernes 1864.

Armand Gautier - A woman ironing - oil on canvas
Musee des Beaux-Arts, Caen, France

In 1847–50 he worked in the studio of the Neo-classical painter François Souchon (1787–1857).

 

In 1852 he received a scholarship to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris with Léon Cogniet.



He frequented the Brasserie Andler where he met many of the artists who exhibited at the Salon, particularly the Realists.

 

Gautier himself made his début at the Salon in 1853 with Thursday Promenade. He shared living-quarters with Paul Gachet, a close friend whom he had known from his days in Lille. Gachet, who was a doctor, introduced Gautier to the environment of such hospitals as La Salpêtrière, and this influenced the direction his art was to take.



Armand Gautier - Salpetriere - lithograph 1857
showing personifications of dementia, megalomania, acute mania,
melancholia, idiocy, hallucination, erotomania and paralysis.
in the gardens of the Hospice de la Salpêtrière.

He was authorized to execute a large number of studies of lunatics in the specialized asylum, continuing the tradition begun some 30 years earlier by Gericault with his scientifically realistic series of monomaniacs.

 

Gautier was fascinated by this experience and, as a result, painted his best-known work, the Madwomen of La Salpêtrière (destr. 1870). When the painting was exhibited in 1857 at the Salon in Paris, it was a resounding success, acclaimed not only by Maxime Du Camp but also by Jules-Antoine Castagnary, Théophile Gautier and Charles Baudelaire.

The originality of its conception and the virtuosity of its technique made the painting a significant example of Realism, worthy of being placed in the same category as the works of his master and friend Courbet. Their friendship was such that in 1867 Courbet painted Gautier’s portrait (Lille, Mus. B.-A.).

 

Jean Desire Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) - Gautier Portrait - oil

During this time he actively sought a patron, and eventually found one in Louis-Joachim Gaudibert (1838–70), a wealthy shipowner from Le Havre who had already helped Monet and Eugène Boudin.

Gautier became friends with these artists who were interested in unconventional ways of painting; he was particularly close to Monet, whom he advised early in the latter’s career.

 

He took part in the first Salon des Refusés in 1863, exhibiting The Adulteress (1860; untraced). During this time financial needs prompted him to paint portraits for the Salons, where they were favourably reviewed by critics, who compared him to Carolus-Duran. Along with Courbet, he was a member of the revolutionary movement of the Commune and because of his activities was arrested and sentenced in June 1871.

 

He began exhibiting again at the Salon from 1874, showing portraits, still-lifes and religious scenes, and continued to do so until 1888, but these works did not have the conviction of his earlier ones. In his last years he became a recluse in the village of Ecouen and was eventually put in a retirement home by friends.

 

Research Links 

 

Strawberige

Art Fact

National Gallery of Australia - Art Search

 Scholars Resource

 

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