A Woman Spinning Flax

François Bonvin

1861 · Charcoal on laid paper · Drawings and Prints

The motif of a woman sewing, knitting, or, as here, operating a spinning wheel was especially popular in nineteenth-century France, where Realist artists like Bonvin produced images that both exposed and aestheticized the arduous lives of working- and lower middle-class people. Here, Bonvin carefully applied charcoal to model the figure’s face, hands, and costume and to suggest light flooding into the spare interior. Reducing the setting to the bare minimum, he concentrates our attention on the woman and her own absorption in her work.

Artist

François Bonvin

Date

1861

Medium

Charcoal on laid paper

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Lila and Herman Shickman, 2000