The Spinner
Artist
Thomas Eakins
(American, 1844–1916)
Dateabout 1876
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionscanvas: 76.7 × 64 cm (30 3/16 × 25 3/16 in.)
framed: 90.2 × 76.8 cm (35 1/2 × 30 1/4 in.)
framed: 90.2 × 76.8 cm (35 1/2 × 30 1/4 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1929.123
Label TextThe 1876 Philadelphia Centennial exhibition—a major international fair commemorating American independence—sparked increased interest in the colonial era. Domestic, preindustrial crafts, such as knitting, spinning, and needlework, became renewed pastimes and expressed a nostalgic, patriotic spirit. The Spinner relates to this cultural phenomenon as Eakins paints an industrious woman pumping the treadle of a spinning wheel. In Worcester’s sketch for a larger, finished painting, the monochromatic background and spotlight on the spinner at work emphasize physical labor driven by mental concentration.ProvenanceMrs. Thomas Eakins, ?1917?; C.W. Cranmer, Philadelphia, 1929; WAM, 1929On View
Not on view
