Old Woman with a Spindle - Antoine Watteau

Old Woman with a Spindle by Antoine Watteau - Genre Drawings from Hermitage Museum

Drawing Detail

Old Woman with a Spindle
Artist: Antoine Watteau
Medium: Drawings, Black and red chalk on brownish paper, 28.5x19.3 cm
Date: 1710s
Genre: Genre Painting
Source: Collection of Count Cobenzl, Brussels, 1768

This sheet shows a study for a figure of an old woman for a now lost painting, "Occupations According to Age". The drawing was engraved by Anne-Claude Philippe Caylus in a collection of engravings published by Jean de Jullienne in 1726-1728. Antoine Watteau showed the aged woman seated on a stool with her spindle. Her tired face with its sharp features, her humped back and thin, veined hands, are evidence that she is well used to hard physical labour. In his depictions of ordinary working people Watteau revived a tradition begun by the Le Nain brothers.