Bonvin believed art should express the truths of everyday life by including humble subjects and routine activities. Seeking to emphasize the simplicity and timelessness of what his sitters were doing, rather than who they were, he often portrayed women with their heads quietly bowed to domestic chores, such as knitting, grinding coffee, playing the piano, slicing bread, shucking oysters, or, as is seen here, twisting wool from a spindle into yarn.

By virtue of its subject, composition, technique, and size, our new drawing is now the most significant work by Bonvin in the Museum's collection, which also includes an early graphite work, a watercolor, and five etchings. The woman is one of four spinners drawn and etched by the artist between 1856 and 1861. An austere image, suffused with dusky, poetic light, it typifies Bonvin's best, mature work, which evolved from his study of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century painters, particularly Chardin.