Albert Anker

The outstanding painterly quality and graceful composition are the distinguishing features of this painting of a girl knitting. She is shown in profile and is wearing a dress with a striped apron and a colorful scarf. Her blonde braided hair and studious face contrast with the dark background. Completely immersed in the manual work, the young girl is devoting herself to her task. Her fingers hold the knitting needles and the pale yarn with easy virtuosity. Anker complements the scene using two still life motifs in the foreground. The apple and the notebooks generate both compositional depth and a narrative. Anker repeatedly depicted girls knitting and embroidering. The actual subject is not knitting itself, but rather the psychological process of the sitter concentrating on her activity. Anker’s painting is based on close observation. While the knitter wasn’t posing, her gender-specific training as a housewife is nevertheless apparent in the imagery.  With the introduction of compulsory education from 1830 onwards, girls also received the right to four to six years of teaching in the basic skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic. However, handicraft lessons only for girls meant gender-specific subjects became quickly established in elementary schools. For a long time, girls were excluded from high and grammar schools and therefore from such subjects as physics, chemistry, geometry, and Latin.