The Spinner

The Breton subjects in the canvases Peslin presented at the Paris Salon were often from Pont-Aven, where, from 1876, he spent time in the artists’ colony and lodged at the Hotel Julia. In realism, a painter’s attention is often focused on the detail of decorative objects such as embroideries, faience dishes, and sculpted wooden furniture. This canvas shows a Breton embroiderer, or fileuse, wearing working clothes with an unstarched collar and headdress, soiled apron and wooden clogs. She stands in a light-filled room with whitewashed walls and a bare wooden floor, holding a distaff in one hand and a ball of wool in the other. Behind her, a sideboard on top of which a blanket and spinning wheel can be seen and a wall-mounted china cabinet add ethnographic detail to the portrait