A guide to Windsor Castle's famous Dolls’ House.
SYDNEY CURNOW VOSPER (1866-1942)
Threading the shuttle
c.1923RCIN 927444
A miniature watercolour of an elderly woman seated in a rustic interior, bending to her work at a spinning wheel. Signed, lower right.
The sense of depth, atmosphere, and evening luminosity achieved in this tiny portrayal of a woman at her spinning wheel is remarkable. It recalls paintings of seventeenth-century Dutch interiors and is perhaps a reminder of the traditional concept of the sanctity of work; in this case, of domestic labour. Sydney Curnow Vosper’s paintings often show us elderly women engaged in acts of moral or spiritual value. In 2019 his most celebrated work, entitled Salem, was acquired by the National Library of Wales. It depicts an elderly woman, Sian Owen, in traditional Welsh dress, entering Capel Salem in Gwynedd, Wales.
The sense of depth, atmosphere, and evening luminosity achieved in this tiny portrayal of a woman at her spinning wheel is remarkable. It recalls paintings of seventeenth-century Dutch interiors and is perhaps a reminder of the traditional concept of the sanctity of work; in this case, of domestic labour. Sydney Curnow Vosper’s paintings often show us elderly women engaged in acts of moral or spiritual value. In 2019 his most celebrated work, entitled Salem, was acquired by the National Library of Wales. It depicts an elderly woman, Sian Owen, in traditional Welsh dress, entering Capel Salem in Gwynedd, Wales.
