A Woman Spinning and a Fisherman
17th century
Medium
Etching; third state of four
Dimensions
11.5 x 12.1 cm
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1963
Accession Number
63.616.41
Tags
Art Historical Context
Thomas Wijck’s “A Woman Spinning and a Fisherman” captures a quiet moment of 17th-century daily life in a compact etching measuring just 11.5 by 12.1 centimeters. The scene shows a woman at her spinning wheel alongside a fisherman, set against modest buildings that suggest a rural or coastal village. Rendered in the third state of four, the print reveals Wijck’s careful adjustments to line and tone, characteristic of the period’s evolving printmaking techniques. As an etching, the work belongs to the flourishing Dutch tradition of affordable, reproducible art that brought images of ordinary p...