Set in a rustic kitchen on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, this painting depicts a woman who winds a ball of yarn from a coil looped in the hands of a man sitting across from her at a respectable distance. At the time, winding yarn was a common symbol of courtship that carried humorous overtones of a woman ensnaring her suitor. The second woman in the composition is likely a chaperone. The suitor’s unrefined, open-legged pose, coupled with his rude action of placing his hat on the floor, adds further comic elements that contemporary audiences would have appreciated.
- By Eastman Johnson (American, 1824–1906)
- Dated 1872
- Rights: CC0
Terms
Culture
America
Medium
oil on board
Genre
Painting
Department
American Painting and Sculpture
Relations
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