An Old Woman Spinning Silk
Oil Painting
ca. 1816 (painted)
ca. 1816 (painted)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Margaret Sarah Carpenter was a prolific portraitist who exhibited throughout the first half of the 19th century at the Royal Academy; three of her portraits are in the National Portrait Gallery. This genre scene of an old woman spinning is one of her earliest known works. She seems to have exhibited it at the British Institute in 1816, when she was just 23, under the title 'An Old Woman Spinning Silk'. It may have been cut down before it was sold; the exhibition catalogue records a measurement of '40 by 37 inches', but the V&A's painting is significantly smaller.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | An Old Woman Spinning Silk (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Oil on canvas |
| Brief description | Oil Painting, An Old Woman Spinning Silk, by Margaret Sarah Carpenter, ca. 1816. |
| Physical description | An oil painting depicting an old woman in cloak and bonnet seated at a spinning wheel. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Credit line | Bequeathed by John M. Parsons |
| Object history | Bequeathed by John M. Parsons, 1870. This is most likely the painting exhibited under the title 'An Old Woman Spinning Silk' at the British Institute in 1816. |
| Historical context | Margaret Sarah Carpenter, née Geddes, was a prolific portraitist; three of her portraits are in the National Portrait Gallery. Her husband's obituary stated that '[she] would certainly have been a Royal Academician but for her sex' (Gentleman's Magazine, September 1866, p. 410). |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | Margaret Sarah Carpenter was a prolific portraitist who exhibited throughout the first half of the 19th century at the Royal Academy; three of her portraits are in the National Portrait Gallery. This genre scene of an old woman spinning is one of her earliest known works. She seems to have exhibited it at the British Institute in 1816, when she was just 23, under the title 'An Old Woman Spinning Silk'. It may have been cut down before it was sold; the exhibition catalogue records a measurement of '40 by 37 inches', but the V&A's painting is significantly smaller. |
| Bibliographic reference | Parkinson, R., Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, London: HMSO, 1990, p. 23 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 512-1870 |
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| Record created | June 8, 2006 |
| Record URL |
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