Neapolitan Flax Spinner was probably painted during Waterhouse’s visit to southern Italy in 1877 when he also painted several watercolours at Pompeii. Although he had been born in Italy, his parents had moved to England when he was five years old and the trip in 1877 was the first time he had returned.
This picture is a rare early painting by Waterhouse. Unlike other pictures of this formative period such as In the Peristyle of 1874 (Rochdale Art Gallery), After the Dance of 1876 and A Sick Child Brought into the Temple of Aesculapius of 1877 (both from the collection of Sir Tim Rice), this picture depicts a contemporary scene of Italian peasant life. However, the picture appears to have been based on an earlier, classically-inspired subject La Fileuse of 1874 (Bonhams, 29 September 2010, lot 143) which also depicts a flax spinner at the door of her house.

– From Sotheby’s catalogue.

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