The Knitting Girl

The Knitting Girl: William-Adolphe Bouguereau

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William-Adolphe Bouguereau Oil Painting - The Knitting Girl

Keywords: Knitting, Girl

Work Overview: The Knitting Girl
French: La Couseuse
The Knitting Girl (1856)
Artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau
Year 1869
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 145 cm × 99 cm (57 in × 39 in)
Location Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha

The Knitting Girl (French: La Couseuse) is a painting created by nineteenth century French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau in 1869. The painting is also referred to as Knitting Anne due to the simplistic nature of the young woman portrayed in the painting. The painting is currently held in the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska in the United States.

In the mid-1860s, William Adolphe Bouguereau began painting idealized images of peasant women and children. Joslyn’s The Knitting Girl is Bouguereau’s first and most monumental representation of the image. Sitting serenely under a tree, this young girl is lost in thought as she knits. Dressed in simple clothes for the day (and barefoot!), she’s a wonderful example of the beauty of the everyday in art.

Bouguereau, an Academic painter par excellence, developed two main themes: sentimentalized images of pretty peasant, gypsy, and beggar girls and idealized female nudes personifying abstract concepts such as the seasons. Like Academic painters in general, Bouguereau’s artistic reputation has varied greatly. Celebrated in the nineteenth century, he was discredited in the twentieth for clinging to an outmoded tradition, only to be appreciated again recently for his superb technical mastery.

The painting is also fondly known within the art world asKnitting Annebecause of the natural and simplistic manner in which the painting captures the young woman.

Today, The Knitting Girl, can be found in Nebraska at the Joslyn Art Museum.The oil on canvas painting measures 57 inches by 39 inches.

It was during the middle of the 1860s that Bouguereau began to paint images of peasant girls and women in an idealised manner. The Knitting Girl is one such painting, and the first one in this genre.

Today this painting is by far the most influential representation of this group within society during the middle 1800s.

What we observe when we view The Knitting Girl, is a young girl sat on the ground, her back against a large tree trunk. She appears peaceful and to be enjoying the quiet contemplation of knitting in the fresh air.

She is wearing peasants clothing, of a simple style, and is barefoot. There is nothing extraordinary in her outward appearance, but Bouguereau has managed to paint her radiant beauty in such a simplistic and exquisite way.

What this painting evokes is that the everyday can indeed be beautiful.

Bouguereau was an academic scholar as well as a realist painter. He predominantly painted in two genres. He painted his idealised versions of everyday women, as shown in this painting, as well as the personification of goddesses taken from Greek literature and myths.

His peasant paintings idealised the female form, the female body, and he did so with the use of subtle hues and gentle lighting on the canvas. The Knitting Girl consists of soft browns, greys and greens. The only colour stems from the girl's face and her bare feet. Therefore, as an observers are drawn to her pretty face, sculpted mouth and twinkling eyes.

As Bouguereau was viewed as an academic painter, his art came under much scrutiny. Surprisingly, it was during the twentieth century that his art was criticised for using antiquated and outdated methods, whereas during the twenty-first century, his work was once again celebrated.

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William-Adolphe Bouguereau

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