141. Charles Milcendeau, Woman Knitting Seated in a Room with a Young Girl Holding a Cat
| Artist | Charles Milcendeau, French, Soullans, Vendée 1872–Soullans, Vendée 1919 |
| Title, Date | Woman Knitting Seated in a Room with a Young Girl Holding a Cat, not dated |
| Medium | Black chalk |
| Dimensions | 8 1/16 × 6 5/16 in. (20.5 × 16 cm) (sheet) |
| Inscriptions + Marks | Lower left: Charles Milcendeau |
| Provenance | [Mathieu Néouze, Paris, until 2014; to Weisberg]; Yvonne and Gabriel Weisberg, Minneapolis |
| Exhibition History | "Reflections on Reality: Drawings and Paintings from the Weisberg Collection," Mia, 2022–23 |
| Credit Line | Promised gift of Gabriel P. and Yvonne M.L. Weisberg, Minneapolis |
Charles Milcendeau was an important chronicler of French peasant life. His interest in rural ways, combined with the realist dictum of documenting family life, produced intimate drawings such as Woman Knitting. Milcendeau paid special attention to the daily habits of his rural neighbors, showing them making lace, embroidering, spinning, tending to a pet, praying. The quietude here is characteristic of his domestic interiors. He ennobled these subjects by conveying a strong sense of an orderly and industrious household.
GPW