Boudin painted around 100 small works depicting women busy doing the family washing near the port. The women are shown kneeling on the sand near the quayside, at low tide, with beached fishing boats nearby. He rarely shows these women turning to each other and chatting; instead they are seen from behind, their backs bent, intent on their task. Each year Boudin visited the seaside resort of Trouville on the Normandy coast. At first he chose to paint the fashionable bathers on the beach but gradually took an interest in the life of the port. Most of Boudin's works from around the port show the River Touques, which flows past the towns of Trouville and Deauville in Normandy and out into the Channel.