The one hand especially reminds me of 'pin-putting' although I hold my
bobbins heads downwards, whereas the pair she has are angled away from
the pillow. A matter of choice or just the way the threads were, at
the moment the artist captured/interpreted the movement? In his view
via the camera
Hi Everybody:
I've always had two thoughts about this picture. First of all, that she was
putting up a pin. The second one is that she is peering at her pillow because
she has just discovered a mistake. I think the pin-putting is the most likely
scenario, though.
Adele
North Vancouver, BC
Dear Spiders, I have a giclee of Vermeer's Lacemaker and I just went to
my living room to check. She is putting up a pin while holding a
pair of bobbins in her left hand separated by her forefinger. This is a
treasure that Friend Husband bought for me when he got himself a Civil
War print.
She's putting in a pin... and lifting the left pair up and to the left to clean
the visual pathway to the pinhole. I do this myself when the pinhole is
obscured by the threads since the pin is in my right hand.
Alice in Oregon... where we have put 500 miles on our new electric car in it's
Then I wonder how long did she have to keep this pose in order for the
artist to capture it. The bobbins and other wooden objects are
carefully done. The facial features are less clear - would one of her
sisters have sat in, as required? Or if just one sitter, with this
being painted by natural
Darling Daughter, Helen Bell, worked a copy of Vermeer's Lacemaker for me
many years ago, in Tapestry. I think I bought the canvas, and she certainly
did all the stitching.
It holds pride of place in my home.
One day, as she watched me lacemaking, she said Oh!. She is putting up a
pin. Who is?
I just published an announcement of the Lacemaker exhibition on LaceNews,
along with some extensive comments. Art historians rarely know anything
about lacemaking, and so like to expound on the color and delicacy of the
work. Take another look, from a lacemaker's perspective.
Laurie
The Fall/Winter 2011 Yale University Press list of new books to be
published reveals:
Vermeer's Women - Secrets and Silence, which is being published in
association with the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England. Cover
illustration
is of the famous 17th C. painting of the Lacemaker.
