The Laundress (Greuze) in the context of "Prime version"

The Salon of 1761 was an art exhibition held at the Louvre in Paris. Staged during the reign of Louis XV and at a time when the Seven Years' War against Britain and Prussia was at its height, it reflected the taste of the Ancien régime during the mid-eighteenth century. The biannual Salon was organised by the Académie Royale. Jean Siméon Chardin was in charge of choosing hanging locations for the two hundred or so works on display. A number of submissions were Rococo in style. The art critic Denis Diderot wrote extensively about the Salon.

The exhibition was notable for the paintings of Jean-Baptiste Greuze who displayed fourteen works including The Laundress and The Village Bride. François Boucher submitted a pastoral work Shepherd and Shepherdess Reposing. The Swedish artist Alexander Roslin produced portraits both of Boucher and his wife Marie-Jeanne. Louis-Michel van Loo exhibited his Portrait of Louis XV, now a lost work but with several contemporary copies surviving. Joseph Vernet displayed two versions of View of Bayonne, part of his Views of the Ports of France series. Charles-André van Looexhibited Mary Magdalene in the Desert and Jean-Baptiste-Henri Deshays's The Martyrdom of Saint Andrew, which were praised by Diderot.