Object number2016.37
Woman Mending
Artist
Jean-François Millet
(French, 1814 - 1875)
CultureFrench
MediumOil on paper laid down on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 12 3/4 × 9 1/2 in. (32.4 × 24.1 cm)
Credit LineGift of Sheila ffolliott, class of 1967
On View
On viewPeriod19th c
Classification(s)
Vassar Exhibitions
Exhibition HistoryPoughkeepsie, New York, FLLAC (Focus Gallery), Vassar College, "Accessorizing Paris: Fashion and Art in the Nineteenth Centruy," 16 January - April 8, 2018.Label TextIn this small painting on paper, Millet depicted an aspect of many women’s daily routine in the nineteenth century: the labor of sewing. A solitary figure in homespun clothes sits mending, a thimble on her finger and a pincushion on the table nearby. Women of all classes in the 1800s learned to sew. Yet while upper-class women preliminary embellished and embroidered, activities considered suitable for the drawing room and in the presence of guests, working-class women sewed out of necessity. They were responsible for making and mending the clothing of their family members at a time when many people owned few garments, worn hard and requiring frequent repair. (Susan Hiner, French and Francophone Studies Department)
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Jean François de Troy
1733
Culture: French
