The Carder
- Artist
- Jean-François Millet, French, 1814–1875
- Date
- c.1854
- Material
- Crayon
- Classification
- Drawings & watercolors
- Current Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- image: 12 1/4 × 10 1/4 in. (31.1 × 26 cm)
sheet (irregular): 14 3/8 × 12 1/2 in. (36.5 × 31.8 cm)
framed: 23 1/2 × 21 1/4 × 2 in. (59.7 × 54 × 5.1 cm) - Credit Line
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William N. Eisendrath Jr.
- Rights
- Contact Us
- Object Number
- 1920:1981
NOTES
It was Jean-François Millet's practice to repeat a motif he liked in various media to give it fresh expression. This lovely drawing, an interior scene of a woman carding flax-combing and cleaning fibers before spinning-is rendered with a soft crayon. The woman, modeled after the artist's sister Emilie, is bathed in a gentle light as she works in front of an open window. The image expresses Millet's nostalgia for the simplicity of rural labor.