Parlourmaid Preparing a Bath before Dinner, Bill Brandt

Artwork Overview

Parlourmaid Preparing a Bath before Dinner, Bill Brandt
Parlourmaid Preparing a Bath before Dinner, Bill Brandt
Bill Brandt
Parlourmaid Preparing a Bath before Dinner
1930s
Bill Brandt, artist
1904–1983
Parlourmaid Preparing a Bath before Dinner, 1930s
Where object was made: England, United Kingdom
Material/technique: gelatin silver print
Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 34 x 29.2 cm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 13 3/8 x 11 1/2 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 25 x 20 in
Credit line: Museum purchase
Accession number: 1984.0050
On display: Brosseau Learning Center
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Brosseau Center for Learning: In Conversation with the 2025–26 KU Common Book

Access to running water—a privilege many humans in 2025 take for granted. When I return to my childhood home to visit my mother, I take the opportunity to soak in our old cast iron and porcelain clawfoot tub—an activity I’ve enjoyed since a very young age. Hot water at my command and a basin that holds enough of it to envelop my whole body, plus the TIME for that heat to absorb and ease tensions. What a luxury to take a bath. My soaks last up to an hour, though mom invites me to relax as long as I need while she tends to my son.

Bill Brandt’s photograph uses the tub to illustrate class differences in England between the world wars. To bathe is to relax. To shower is to prepare for work. A shower invigorates: efficient, upright cleaning in preparation for the workday; a bath rejuvenates: deeper cleansing of mind AND body with a scrub and a soap, washing away any clinging negative thoughts or troubles. A proper soak in the tub means being horizontal in the water for long periods of time winding down after a long week, inviting ease back into the body.

Baths have become a luxury option in modern housing fixtures. Remodeling jobs remove the tub in favor of modernized showers—easier installation and maintenance for shorter-term tenants. I miss the trusty old tubs. Even scrubbing the tub of soap scum build-up brings me great pleasure because I anticipate how smooth the surface will feel the next time I draw water for a soak.

My living preferences ten years ago did not place due weight on the importance of a common bathroom feature—the tub. I was blessed in the past with luxurious clawfoot tubs. I lucked out with a landlord who preferred maintaining older fixtures and features to ripping out, remodeling, and replacing with some “economical” alternative. Throughout that three-year residence my best friend was the tub. Only now can I fully appreciate what I had—the ability to decompress and wash those aches away.

I, Liz Pfeiffer, bestow a four and a half star rating to bathtubs and the privilege of bathing.

Exhibitions

Photographs from the Collection 1840-1940
John Pultz, curator
2003–2004
Photography Between the Wars: A Survey of American and European Photography 1920-1940
Brett Knappe, curator
2006
Photographs from the Collection, 1843–1960
1991
Photographs from the Collection
John Pultz, curator
1996
Brosseau Center for Learning: Photographs from the early-mid 1900s
2022
Brosseau Center for Learning: In Conversation with the 2025–26 KU Common Book
Scott Barber, curator
Wyatt Haywood, curator
Suzanne Huffman, curator
Ellen Joo, curator
Luke Jordan, curator
Arial Kim, curator
Doug Bergstrom, curator
Susan Earle, curator
Sofía Galarza Liu, curator
Kevin Liu, curator
Kate Meyer, curator
Cara Nordengren, curator
Hana Rose North, curator
Liz Pfeiffer, curator
Sydney Pursel, curator
Rachel Straughn-Navarro, curator
Eli Troen, curator
Maggie Vaughn, curator