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Find the women painting vases, spinning and weaving, then the loom set up in the background at the right.
Working for the British court, West designed several pictures that praised the country’s thriving economy. In this oil sketch on paper, women in classical dress paint vases, spin thread and weave cloth, so that British manufacturing is set beside the achievements of antiquity. One of nine related sketches, it served as the model for a large mural in the Queen’s Lodge at Windsor Castle; remodeling did away with that room in 1823.
oil on paper mounted on wood · Framed: 67.4 x 80 x 5.2 cm · Cleveland Museum of Art · Neoclassicism
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Details and source
- Museum title
- British Manufactory; A Sketch
- Artist
- Benjamin West (American, born The Thirteen Colonies, 1738–1820)
- Date
- 1791
- Medium
- oil on paper mounted on wood
- Dimensions
- Framed: 67.4 x 80 x 5.2 cm (26 9/16 x 31 1/2 x 2 1/16 in.); Unframed: 51 x 65 cm (20 1/16 x 25 9/16 in.)
- Credit line
- Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.