Sewing, Weaving and Spinning in Art

I am certain that a Sewing Machine would relieve as much human suffering as a hundred Lunatic Asylums, and possibly a good deal more.
Margaret Atwood

“Men plough, women weave” is a traditional Chinese idiom.

Before modern machines, making clothes was enormous time-consuming.

But have you ever walked into a museum exhibition that celebrated this female-typed task

– making everyone’s clothes and keeping them warm??
— Alice Evans (@_alice_evans) September 10, 2023

Slovenly Peter, or, Cheerful stories and funny pictures for good little folks illustrated by Hoffman Heinrich

Man and Woman at a Spinning Wheel, Pieter Pietersz. (I), c. 1560 – c. 1570. Despite their individualized features, it is uncertain whether the depiction of this elegantly dressed couple was intended as a portrait. The scene nevertheless carries a clear message. The man holding a tankard is seducing the young woman, who stares directly at us. She must choose between the spinning wheel and the tankard, between virtue and vice.

Portrait of a Woman, possibly Anne Codde, Maarten van Heemskerck, 1529

Boris Dekhterev – Sleeping Beauty

Spinster in een interieur, Jan van Halbeeck, 1600 – 1630

Wevende vrouw, Jan van Halbeeck (possibly copy after), 1610 – c. 1680

Frigga Spinning the Clouds (1909) by John Charles Dollman (England, 1851–1934). The name ‘Friday’ comes from Old English meaning ‘day of Frig’

De spinster, Nicolaes Maes, 1652 – 1662

Peasant Woman Spinning, Thomas Wijck, 1640 – 1677

Vrouw aan spinnewiel, Justus Chevillet, after Johann Kaspar Heilmann, 1762

Spinning young woman, Jan Weissenbruch, 1832 – 1880

Henry Herbert La Thangue Some Poor People Sewing

Spinster at her work, Leopold Löwenstam, 1852 – 1898

**The Juvenile almanack, or, Series of monthly emblems c1822-1824 spinning**

Mermaid of Edam spinning in a house, 1403, anonymous, 1643 – 1645

Spinning woman talking to woman, Johannes Alexander Rudolf Best, 1823

The spinning set up is not quite right in this illustration. The spinster would not spin the basic flax straight into a handy ball. First spin one ply onto the spool, then ply individual strands. Then wash. Then dry on a niddy noddy. Then someone holds the skeins as you wind it into a ball. Alternatively you can ball from the niddy noddy. Plus, that castle wheel seems to be missing a bobbin and flyer.

Nikifor Rashchektayev – The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish spinning

Alfred Kappes (1850–1994)

Fausto (The Devil) by Charles Gounod (1818-1893). According to Scottish folklore, tailoring was the only trade the devil could not learn. Tailors would not take him on as an apprentice, so he didn’t know to tie a knot in the thread before pulling it through fabric. Sewing for the devil was a Sisyphean task because the thread always came straight through the fabric.

Plate from Dickens’s children by Jessie Willcox Smith. Published 1912

‘Woman Sewing.’ (1903) Joseph Stella, an Italian born American artist

Spencer Gore’s painting depicts his wife Mollie seated at her sewing table in a vividly coloured room at 6 Cambrian Road in Richmond, London in 1914

Peggy Ryan’s 1936 portrait of Dodie Masterman which won the Ida Nettleship prize at the Slade

Jack and Jill and Other Nursery Rhymes 1958 Crosspatch draw the latch sit by the fire and spin

Farm with spinning woman, Richard Adam, 1654 – c. 1720

Woman spinning in front of a house, Adriaen van Ostade, 1652

Shepherdess spinning, Paul van Somer (II), 1670 – 1697

Woman with distaff and a reel in the hands, Jacques Callot, 1630 – 1661

Living room with son Jantje and spinning slave Flora, Jan Brandes, 1784

Halloween A Holiday Book by Lillie Patterson, illustrated by Gil Miret (1963)

Frederick Richardson, illustrator, spinning

Svetlana Kim, Spindle, shuttle and needle

Cover of the July 1909 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine

Home Arts Magazine April 1936

‘The Seamstresses.’ Raphael Soyer portrayed working-class people during the Great Depression and after

Home Arts Magazine March 1936

Alexander Hugo Bakker Korff (1824-1882, Dutch) Two Ladies At Their Sewing (not dated)

Richard Edward Miller (American painter, 1875-1943) Woman Sewing

Edouard Vuillard (French 1868–1940) The Binder 1934

Elizabeth Shippen Green, The Thousand Quilt, Harper’s Magazine, December 1904

Boys’ Life Magzine February 1922

sewing limerick with illustration by Edmund Dulac

Richard Scarry’s Chipmunk’s ABC by Roberta Miller, illustrated by Richard Scarry (1963)

Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas by Russell Hoban, illustrated by Lillian Hoban (1971)

The Sewing Lesson, Jessie Willcox Smith, 1909

Henri Lebasque – Marthe et Nono cousant dans un intérieur, c. 1910. Oil on canvas

The Cat Woman and the Spinning Wheel and Other Stories Doctor Bird Reading Series set in Jamaica

George Sand The Pink Cloud wool Svetlana Kim 1982

Hubert von Herkomer – Eventide – A Scene in the Westminster Union 1878. It depicts women at St James’s Workhouse, in Soho, London. Although sparsely furnished and decorated, Herkomer depicts the workhouse as a relatively comfortable place. Most of the women are sewing. They are painted as ‘crone’ archetypes, and although their mouths are closed, it appears they have long since lost most or all of their teeth.