Eastman Johnson, Winding Yarn (Interior of a Nantucket Kitchen)
Hurlbut Collection, 1915.682 · The Cleveland Museum of Art, Open Access (CC0)View original →
Eastman Johnson

Winding Yarn (Interior of a Nantucket Kitchen)

1872

Current Collection

Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Medium
oil on board
Dimensions
37.5 × 54.6 cm
Status
In Museum Collection
Collect24 Art ID
C24-109246

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.

Provenance

Hurlbut Collection, 1915.682

Registry history

  • 1872 — Recorded in the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

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