The Carder
Artist
Jean-François Millet
(French, 1814 - 1875)
Date1855-1856
MediumEtching on laid paper
DimensionsImage: 10 1/8 × 6 7/8 inches (25.72 × 17.46 cm)
Sheet: 13 1/2 × 9 1/2 inches (34.29 × 24.13 cm)
Sheet: 13 1/2 × 9 1/2 inches (34.29 × 24.13 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number32-69/25
InscribedInscribed on sheet recto, lower edge, in graphite pencil: "first state"
Inscribed on sheet verso, within the plate mark, in pencil: "AIC 23.36" [previous Art Institute of Chicago acquisition number]
Inscribed on sheet verso, within the plate mark, at lower left: "3993"
MarkingsOn sheet verso, within the plate mark, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art oval stamp.
Edition/State/Prooffirst and only state
On View
Not on viewCollections
Gallery LabelJean-François Millet frequently depicted quiet moments of
domesticity in a variety of media. The Carder illustrates a
traditionally female job in which fibers of wool, cotton, or flax are cleaned
and straightened so they can be spun into thread on a large wheel like the one
posed behind the sitter. Millet adopts this iconography from Medieval Christian
imagery of Eve spinning thread, a labor required in order for her to eat. The
scene expresses the virtue of honest labor and the worker’s fate of endless
toil.
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