The Weaver by Marianne Stokes, née Preindlsberger (1855-1927). Signed and dated 1917 in the lower lefthand corner. Oil on canvas. 49 x 47.5 cm.; 19¼ x 18¾ in. Private Collection (from Sotheby's, by kind permission).
Among her later works, Stokes's painting of a young woman at her loom confirms what Alice Meynell said about the artist in 1901 — that she captured the interest with compositions "that make pictorial signs and bear symbols clear to the eye" (246). Here is that innocent beauty of young womanhood, in a setting of absolute rural simplicity, with both the work and the loom itself ennobled by the useful labour they represent. Everything, from the girl's face, hands and clothes to the sturdy, sloping wooden frame with its accoutrements and fine thread, is illuminated by the light from the window, with its hint of an idyllic village landscape and blue sky beyond.
This composition is perfect in detail as well as in general: everything here, even the grain of the wood, the elements of the frame's construction, the strand of hair escaping from the little white bonnet, and the splash of red at the girl's neck, speaks of the artist's patient observation and its painstaking translation to the canvas. One might call the painting, as well as the work depicted in it, a labour of love.
The painting is similar in feeling to an earlier one, St Elizabeth of Hungary, Spinning Wool for the Poor, praised by M. Phipps Jackson in the Magazine of Art of 1895 for being "beautiful alike in its earnest motive, execution and colour" (288).
St Elizabeth of Hungary, Spinning Wool for the Poor, c.1895.
It seems hardly necessary in this later work to add a halo, such is the virginal appearance of the young woman; nor is there any need to insist that her absorbing task is a meaningful one. — Jacqueline Banerjee
Bibliography
Jackson, M. Phipps. "The New Gallery." The Magazine of Art. Vol. 18 (1895): 285-288.
Meynell, Alice. "Mrs Adrian Stokes." The Magazine of Art Vol. 25 (1901): 241-46. Internet Archive. Sponsored by the Kahke/Austin Foundation. Web, 24 June 2023.
Created 24 June 2023