Greteken bij het spinrokken, zittend bij een open raam 1842

Nicaise De Keyser made this watercolor painting of Greteken at her spinning wheel in the mid-19th century. The painting is small, but it depicts a range of materials and making processes. Obviously there is the spinning wheel itself, a device that would have been ubiquitous in the era before industrial textile production. We also see the woven basket on the floor, and the sitter’s clothing, clearly hand-sewn. De Keyser has also included little details, like the ceramic pots on the windowsill. These elements add up to a portrait not just of a young woman, but of a whole system of pre-industrial production. She pauses from her labour in a reverie. The artist prompts us to consider the amount of work involved in creating even the simplest things, the human effort that underpinned daily life before mechanization. By focusing on these often-overlooked elements, De Keyser elevates craft and labour to the level of fine art.