I - Forever spinning … Spinning wheels

To spin - According to the Oxford compact dictionary, the first meaning of this verb is to turn or cause (a person or thing) to turn…, but also draw out or twist (whool, cotton, etc…) into thread, make yarn in this way…

This first post on spinning will illustrate the tool which was derived from the original meaning of this verb: the spinning wheel... used for centuries to produce yarn.

The few drawings and paintings collected below from the Renaissance to the XIXth century show the importance this tool has played in people daily life till the industrial revolution (another interesting "spinning" word) left it as a collectable for musea...

1-In this Lucas van Leyden's engraving, a woman is seated at the spinning close to a young boy on the ground exhibiting a ball of yarn. Despite the artistic value of this engraving, the drawer's intention seems more to stress woman's work at home by mean of an allegory (or a morale?)
A morale may definitely be found in another painting Man and Woman at the spinning wheel, ca 1560/70 by Pieter Pietersz (1541-1603) exhibited in the Rijksmuseum where the woman sitting at the spinning wheel is being seduced by a man with a jug of beer...

 Lucas von Leyden (1494-1533), Young lady at the spinning wheel, 1513, Cabinet Edmond de Rothschild, Musée du Louvre, Paris

2-The main interest of the painting below is likely not the spinning wheel itself despite the very realistic representation but the elegance of the woman and her clothing gear (scarf, shirt…). This is certainly a very special day! This early XVIth century painting is in fact one part of a dyptic, the other part being the portrait of her man. This painting, likely made for the engagement of the couple (?), is acknowledged according to the Rijskmueum as the earliest representation of Dutch citizens.

Maarten van Heemskerck (1498-1574), Portrait of a couple (left part), possibly Anna Codde, 1529, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

 3-This painting from the Dutch golden age period brings us in the private sphere of a lady deeply concentrated at her the spinning work. The light reflected in this tiny corner and no-frills surrounding emphasize the dedication of this lady to her task. Nicolas Maes was an expert in this type of interior scenes giving us much details on people and their daily activities at the time. His paintings contains also a mine of information on social conditions, dressing, tooling and techniques at the time...

Nicolas Maes (1634-1693), A woman spinning, 1655, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

4-In the van Brenkelenkam's painting below, a man, this time, is seating at the spinning wheel. Was that odd for the time or an early sign of interest for gender equality? The guy is talking with an angler while he is drinking a jug of wine. One can then question the work output compared to the the lady in Maes' painting above :-) Any morale or lessons learnt intentions to be drawn here?

Quirijn van Brekelenkam (1622/29-1669/79), Interior with an Angler and a man at spinning wheel and Reel, 1663, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

5-Spinning yarn must have been a boring, monotonous and tiring exercise! This gives opportunity to Courbet to represent a sleeping girl next to her wheel. His work focuses here on body posture showing the bent neck and the open hands of the subject giving the impression of a very deep sleep. The details of plies and shadows on the stripped shawl shows Courbet's painting talent. In this rest interval, the spinning work completely left apart.

 Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), La fileuse endormie, 1853, Musée Fabre - Montpellier

6-This van Gogh's drawing  made one year before the Potato eaters represents an early work in his short career. If his interest for "peasant genre" and copies of J-F Millet's paintings (e.g. The sower, 1890) is well documented, the interior scenes are very important as well. In this case, van Gogh re-visits a well illustrated thema from the Flemish and Dutch schools (see Nicolas Maes above) though his drawing shows here a very simple perspective (front view). The naturalist aspects (painfulness of the work and social condition of the worker) are may be emphasized by the rather tarnished colors (grey und brown).

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), Woman at the spinning wheel, spring 1884, Private collection, New York

7-In this painting, Wilhelm Leibl shows two women seated perpendicularly working silently in a room furnished with a table and a large high chest. The light coming from the two windows fills the room and falls on a bare wooden floor; a refined painting hangs on the wall as the only sign of decoration. The room is not a workshop but likely the maid room of a bourgeois house where some versatile works can be made by the employees. Could we assume that the main intention of the artist here was simply to represent the atmosphere of this scene with a high degree of reality?

Wilhlem Leibl (1844-1900), Die Spinnerin/Woman spinning, 1892, Museum der Bildenen Künste, Leipzig

In romantic music, Gretchen am Spinnrade /Young girl at the spinning wheel is one of the most famous Schubert's Lieder composed in 1814 for piano and Soprano (op.2 D. 118). The lyrics are based on Goethe's Faust where Margaret seating at the spinning wheel complains on her fate...  (Meine Ruh ist hin…My peace is gone…). In this Lieder, the piano part perfectly mimics the rotation of the wheel. 

Few years later, another romantic composer, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy wrote in ca 1843 a Spinnerlied for piano only (op.67 Nr. 4). It belongs to the  Lieder ohne Worte/Songs without words where the same musical effect is produced.