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A Woman Spinning Flax

1861
Not on view
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.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: A Woman Spinning Flax
  • Artist: François Bonvin (French, Paris 1817–1888 Saint-Germain-en-Laye)
  • Date: 1861
  • Medium: Charcoal on laid paper
  • Dimensions: 15 7/8 x 11 5/8 in. (40.3 x 29.6 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Gift of Lila and Herman Shickman, 2000
  • Object Number: 2000.515
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

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Weaver from Brittany
François Bonvin
A. Clément
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Etching Tools, François Bonvin French, Etching; proof
Etching Tools
François Bonvin
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Standing Peasant Girl, François Bonvin French, Graphite
Standing Peasant Girl
François Bonvin
1847
A Woman Reading, after Pieter Janssens Elinga, François Bonvin French, Watercolor and gouache
A Woman Reading, after Pieter Janssens Elinga
François Bonvin
Pieter Janssens Elinga
1846–47
La Guitariste
François Bonvin
1861

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