Weaving and Spinning
1860
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
About the artist
1860
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Weaving and Spinning is a 1860 unspecified by Kehar Singh, a Patna School of Painting work, depicting Company School, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see two men sitting on the ground, weaving and spinning cotton under a rough shelter made of sticks. This painting was made for British officials who ran the East India Company. The artist shows the simple tools and bare feet of the workers, not the grand factories back in England. The tiny writing at the top is like a label—it tells who painted it and what the men do. To see more scenes like this, look up *company school*.
Hand-spun and woven cotton cloth was probably the most important commodity exported from India during the 1700s and 1800s. The British East India Company expanded to manage the business of textile production and international sale. The humble conditions under which Indian weavers and spinners worked are depicted here, where simple looms are made from crude branches, and the craftsmen work on the ground. The inscriptions at the top of the page indicate the artist’s name and the workers’ occupations.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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